Mind Dump

Mind Dump

Scott McLeod  //  Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University. He also is the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation's only center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video, Did You Know? (Shift Happens).

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Mar 9 / 7:45am

If students don't want to pay attention, the laptop is the least of your problems

by Scott McLeod

Plenty of professors still allow laptops. Siva Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies and law at U-Va., generally permits them in his classes. He remembers his own college diversion: reading newspapers surreptitiously on the floor beneath his desk. He believes that, ultimately, it is a professor's job to hold the class's attention.

"If students don't want to pay attention, the laptop is the least of your problems," he said.

Vaidhyanathan, an Internet scholar, senses a losing battle. In an era of iPhones and BlackBerrys, Internet-ready cellphones have become just as prevalent in classrooms as laptops, and equally capable of distraction. If professors had hoped to hermetically seal their teaching space by banning laptops, they might be about three years too late.

via http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030804915_pf.html

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Filed under  //  edtech   higheredtech  

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Mar 8 / 11:15am

8 norms for the Net Generation

by Scott McLeod
To reshape pedagogy, Tapscott says that we must consider eight norms for the Net Generation: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation.
Don Tapscott via ASCD at http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2010/03/tapscott.html

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Filed under  //  edtech   learning   teaching  

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Mar 6 / 7:30am

Dean Shareski asks: Are we insane?

by Scott McLeod

Imagine it’s 1991. A principal of a large school has students that are doing some really nice writing and art. Imagine of a large publishing company comes to the school and wants to try something different. They offer the principal a chance for every student in the building the opportunity to publish any or all works of their choice. They’ll publish these books of writing and/or art and distribute them to libraries and book stores all over the world. And they’ll do it all for free.

The principal listens to their offer and says, “No thanks.”

Now imagine you’re a parent of children from this school and find out about the offer and the principal’s decline of that offer. Would you be satisfied with that or would you be marching into her office and find out if she’s gone completely insane?

Are we insane for not accepting that same deal that every school on the planet has been offered in 2010?

Dean Shareski via http://ideasandthoughts.org/2010/03/04/are-we-insane/

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Filed under  //  edtech  

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Jan 29 / 4:58am

Why the iPad may not be the right product for education

by Scott McLeod

Apple’s own iPad website states:

The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and videos.

That might be so, but what’s the best way to create web pages, emails, photos, and videos. That’s the device I want. That’s the device I want in the hands of my students!

Jeff Utecht via http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-ipad-not-the-right-product-for-education

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Filed under  //  edtech   education   technology  

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Jan 28 / 5:02pm

Bill Ferriter hates interactive whiteboards

by Scott McLeod
I’m willing to argue that even with time and training, interactive whiteboards are an under-informed and irresponsible purchase. They do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning.
Bill Ferriter via http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/01/27/tln_ferriter_whiteboards.html

Found via Russ Goerend, http://opt.posterous.com/teacher-magazine-why-i-hate-interactive-white

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Jan 26 / 7:18am

A "generation lap" rather than a "generation gap"

by Scott McLeod

“This is the first time in history when children are an authority on something important. This digital revolution is changing every institution,” Tapscott said. And this, he added, has caused a generation “lap” instead of a generation gap, because kids are lapping parents on the digital track.

“This generation has a big problem - it’s us. The problem, to me, is older people who don’t ‘get it,’” Tapscott said.

Don Tapscott via eSchoolNews, http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/26/digital-natives-need-tech-rich-education/?

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Jan 12 / 12:34pm

We are "de-skilling" students

by Scott McLeod
In far too many schools, we still "de-skill" students, unplugging them from the mediums they are most comfortable with to teach through methods contemporary to the buggy whip.  We unplug our students, believing that laptops, iPods, cellphones, and even whiteboards have no real place in teaching the three Rs.  As a result, students fail to see the relevance of their education as they judge the delivery and not the content.  In our quest to boost high school graduation numbers and build a more educated workforce, we should be doing everything and anything we can to better connect students to those learning and opportunity pathways.  That not only means technology, but it means well-integrated tech.
via http://blog.eduflack.com/2010/01/11/whiteboarding-uneven-learning.aspx

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