I surely agree with you regarding your comments about "No such thing as a
must have application"
However, there are many issues that are shared by many one to one
initiatives and applications like eduplatform, simply pave the road for a
smoother ride, and no, it surely does not resolve all issues but surely the
most common ones. I am an "old school" advocate of Classroom Management
being a responsibility of the teacher not a software nor hardware. At the
end of the day Teachers need to find how to best apply their classroom
management skills and how to use the resources made available to them, of
course adapting them to their particular student population. My clients have
been very happy with eduplatform because they have a choice as to which of
the tools they use at any given moment, more importantly they find that
creating engaging lessons by integrating digital resources is the best way
to minimize disciplinary issues. There are many classroom management
software out there like Lanschool, Synchrounouseyes, Netop, net support that
make similar claims but I find that they are missing an important component
as it pertains to managing and creating content and distributing a variety
of resources together to attain a lesson objective, thus giving the teachers
the opportunity to author lessons that can be shared, reused and most
importantly aligned to the district standards.
Time management is definitely an issue when teaching, with or without
technology, From planning, to correcting student work to managing gradebook
entries, parent meetings, workshops, etc. so if there is a product that can
help address Time Management when it comes to teaching with computers I'm
certain many teachers would be willing to test their claims, hoping for a
solution to their time management concerns.
Giovanni
Giovanni Paoli, M.Ed.
Educational Consultant
Dreyfous & Associates
gpaoli@dreyfous.com
www.eduplatform.net
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill Fitzgerald
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:59 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Student Time Management
I have set up and run several technology programs, including one to one
laptop initiatives, starting in the late 90's. On the basis of that
experience, I feel very comfortable saying that there is no such thing as a
"must-have" application.
Rather, solutions need to be tailored to the learning context, something
that is very difficult to do with an off-the-shelf product.
In short, time management is ultimately more of a human concern than a
technological concern. While technology can help mediate time management
issues, the notion that technology is a panacea for time management (or
really, any educational issue) is a misleading over-statement that helps
fuel an anti-technology backlash. Technology, used well, helps people meet
needs and solve problems.
My response is similar to Steve's: distraction can and will occur in any
medium. Before computers, people passed notes. Even now, students hold side
conversations -- and I would argue that doing it via a chat client is less
disruptive than the old-fashioned way of passing air over the vocal cords.
It's less a technology issue, and more a personal discipline issue. At the
risk of getting overly general, disruptive behavior with laptops is also
more likely to occur when laptops are integrated into a learning activity
where they aren't essential, or in the classrooms of teachers who have
discipline issues without laptops. Teaching with technology is different
than teaching in the presence of technology.
More importantly, students can be looking straight at you and not hear a
word you say. They don't need technology to blow things off.
Claiming than any platform will fully solve any of these issues is, at best,
overselling.
Cheers,
Bill
--- On Wed, 11/5/08, gpaoli <gpaoli@dreyfous.com> wrote:
> From: gpaoli <gpaoli@dreyfous.com>
> Subject: Re: Student Time Management
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 4:57 AM
> We have been successfully promoting a product called
> EduPlatform to our
> clients. It is a must have for one to one Initiatives.
> Basically, it not
> only includes the features commonly found in Lab Management
> software like
> real time monitring, screen block and sharing, limit/grant
> access to the
> operating system, send/receive files, etc... but also
> includes a nifty
> Lesson Builder, where teachers can create lessons using
> Digital Resources.
> It's all about keeping students engaged and providing
> teachers with the
> tools necessary to manage a networked environment.
> EduPlatform claims they
> can help by, limiting distractions and maximizing
> instructional time.
> EduPlatform hits the mark on both claims.
>
>
>
> Giovanni Paoli, M.Ed.
> Educational Consultant
>
>
>
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
