Guest Commentary Educational Technology Bill of Rights for Students

Brad Flickinger is a technology integration specialist who teaches technology at Bethke Elementary in Timnath, Colo., and is the founder of SchoolTechnology.org. Recently, he wrote a student's edtech bill of rights that was published as part of the Digital Learning Environment Blog.

Taking the viewpoint of a student, Flickinger believes an edtech bill of rights should include:

• The right to use technology at school. I should not be forced to leave my new technology at home to use (in most cases) out-of-date school technology. If I can afford it, let me use it -- you don’t need to buy me one. If I cannot afford it, please help me get one -- I don’t mind working for it.
• The right to access the school’s WiFi. Stop blaming bandwidth, security or whatever else -- if I can get on WiFi at McDonalds, I think that I should be able to get online at school.
• The right to be taught by teachers who know how to manage the use technology in their classrooms. These teachers know when to use technology and when to put it away.

Click here to read all 10 of the rights Flickinger believes students need to have.

Tom Vander Ark: Edtech (hearts) Common Core Standards

Lifting the lowest 30 state standards to real college and career readiness levels isn’t the only benefit of the Common Core.  The new standards unleashed a timely wave of investment in digital content.
In addition to the passing of textbooks, we’re watching the end of the first generation of flat and sequential digital content.  The timely introduction of the Core is accelerating the introduction of engaging and standards-aligned adaptive content.
Click here to read about some of the edtech start ups who are betting on Common Core to help them grow.

Guest Commentary: The Releationship Between Teachers and EdTech: It's Complicated.

Roxanna Elden, author of See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers and  who teaches in Miami, recently completed a turn as a guest blogger for EdWeek venue "Rick Hess Straight Up."
Elden took the opportunity to share her thoughts--and what she says are the thoughts of many teachers--about education technology and classrooms.
"These days, we run into you everywhere. People who say you're just what we need have gone out of their way to introduce you, and are quick to criticize us for not showing more interest. So why aren't we more into you? Well, if you want to win teachers over, you have to understand where we're coming from," she wrote.
Click here to read why Elden says the relationship between teachers and technology is complicated.

Tom Vander Ark: Marching Orders to Make California More EdTech Friendly

Computers, then smart phones, then tablets changed how we engaged the world. Medical technology extended and entertainment technology enriched our lives. Energy saving technology made our lifestyles more sustainable. Entrepreneurs in California's San Francisco Bay Area developed many of these disruptive technologies.
New York and Boston are home to the publishers; metro D.C. is home to the giants of learning online. But the San Francisco Bay Area is poised to lead the learning revolution.
That said, on many dimensions, California education is also behind most states. California should follow the road map and remove barriers to digital learning. Given the concentration of talent and resources, there is no reason that the Bay Area shouldn’t lead the global learning revolution.
Click here to read more on my view of California and why I believe it is ready to become even more of a leader in the edtech revolution.

Guest Commentary: Measuring the Success of EdTech is not all About Test Scores

Christopher Dawson covers the EdTech beat for ZDNet, an online news and information source for the digital community.
"Let me start by saying that I’ve seen too many technology implementations in schools that add no real educational value, but take a nice dent out of taxpayer wallets. There are plenty of ways to go about making a school “technology-rich” that actually take away from the real business of learning," Dawson recently wrote.
"I am not in the give-everyone-computers-and-watch-them-succeed camp.However, I wouldn’t be in the business of Ed Tech if I didn’t think that the potential existed for kids to learn in new, engaging ways that prepared them for real-world challenges and managed to better differentiate instruction so that every student could be better served in our public schools," he continued.
Dawson believes that new ways need to developed to measure success in blended learning and online learning environments.
Click here to read his complete post.

Guest Commentary: Edtech Overload--Too Much of a Good Thing

Brad Flickinger is a technology integration specialist who teaches technology at Bethke Elementary in Timnath, Colo., and is founder of SchoolTechnology.org. Recently, he wrote an essay for Digital Learning Environments.
"Yesterday I spent a few hours reviewing my notes from all of the edtech conferences that I attended this past summer. While going through my notes I kept a list of the ideas that I wanted to try with my students this upcoming 2011-2012 school year," he wrote. "By the time I was done with my review, my list of was over 38 items! How do I incorporate 38 new ideas into my classroom this year?
"One of the general problems with today’s society is information overload," Flickinger continued. "But how do we cure it? How do we stay up-to-date with our lessons without feeling like we are just chasing our edtech tails?"
Click here to read all of Flickinger's essay and find out why too much of a good thing isn't always bad.

Guest Commentary: Aug. 14, 2012--Deadline for Change.

Therese Mageau is the editor of T.H.E. (Technology Horizons in Education ) Journal, an education technology news magazine for K-12 district leaders, IT personnel, and administrators, and she's frustrated.
"It seems to me that we are still having the same conversation we were having a quarter century ago ...We're still talking about the role of technology in changing education from a 19th century to a 21st century institution... Students still need digital literacy skills ... Teachers still do not use technology as an integral part of their instruction ... Teachers and students still don't have access to the right kinds of learning technologies," she wrote.
After 25 years of hearing the same complaints and the same problems, Mageau writes that she has set a deadline--Aug. 14, 2012 to be exact--for change.
Click here to read her post on why education can no longer wait for change.

Guest Commentary: Kathy Schrock on Technology Trends to Watch

"I predict, in educational technology, in the next five years, all students will have an age-appropriate personal information/creation/consumption device with them 24/7. The result of students having access to information at all times will truly engage them as collaborators and participants in the instructional process."
A bold prediction.
That's what Kathy Schrock, author webmaster and director of technology for the Nauset Public Schools, told T.H.E. (Transforming Education Through Technology) Journal recently.
Schrock has witnessed dozens of predictions portending major shifts in how technology will change students, teachers, and schools. Some of those have fared better than others and others have been total surprises.
Click here to read more of Schrock's opinions.

Tom Vander Ark: Tech Improves Learning and Saves Money

Angus King, former governor of Maine, decided Maine was going to lead the way into the 21st century with a laptop for every child.
Starting in 2002, Maine middle schools began converting to 1:1 learning environments. In Tom Greave's forward to a report in which he identifies nine key factors that improve learning and save money, he writes, "Project RED is nothing less than a blueprint for remaking American education ... through fundamentally altering how we do education, the first real change in the process of education itself in a thousand years."
The soon to be released MDR report is based on research in almost 1,000 schools during the last school year. The research team considered 22 variables and 11 success measures.
Click here to see a list of practices that appear to improve learning the most. Technology plays a big part in what is successful.

Guest Commentary: Bugets crises, tech could put an end to the 'Little Red Schoolhouse'

Susan Colby and Caitrin Moran Wright of Bridgespan Group, a non-profit strategy consulting firm, wrote a smart blog post for Edutopia.
In their article, Colby and Wright say the technology-led teaching and learning innovations may be inside the silver lining in the budget reductions so many school districts are facing because of the economic downturn.
Schools may be forced to turn to virtual classes that foster personalized learning because district can no longer afford "the solitary school marm" who stands in front of a classroom "filled with 25 to 30 students." Click here to read complete post.

Guest Commentary: California Edtech Money Sits on Sidelines as Legislators Bicker

This editorial from the Sacramento Bee hits the nail on the head.

It is ironic that the home state of Silicon Valley cannot figure out a way to divide federal stimulus so that local school districts can acquire technology to improve classroom teaching.

California is the only state that has not distributed this money.

Yes, it's a shame.