Two quick responses:
First, technology does "break" a lot. Unfortunately, I'm not old enough to
compare it to say, the phone. How often did the phone break down when that
technology was first introduced into society? And it occurs to me that this
may not even be a problem of design/ manufacture, but one of too early
adoption: we adopt computing technology much, much faster than we adopted
anything else, and it may be partly our fault for buying, or buying into,
these technologies before they've had time to really mature. I know I am
often guilty of this. (Though I've not yet bought a Droid, so I'm very prou=
d
of myself on that count - the wisdom of age I guess!)
Second, I'm not entirely in agreement that "if the students were confused o=
r
lost doing an assignment or understanding my
comments on their papers, it was my fault entirely."
As a teacher, when covering a new topic or handing out assignments, it can
seem that I am expected to
- present it orally
- write in on the board or otherwise present it graphically
- provide examples for students to take home and work from (often so
their tutors can understand the assignment)
- post the assignment and examples on the web
- post it to the school calendar
- and finally, answer all the emails from parents asking when things are
due or what exactly I am expecting
Learning issues aside, we fail our students when we do not teach them good
listening skills. Or how to focus when there is important information being
given.
Your overall point though is well taken, and this kind of collaboration is
just in time to solve problems (global warming, etc.) that require it. It
reminds me of the cathedral in Florence. At the time it was built, there wa=
s
no technology for spanning the central crossing of the nave and transept. S=
o
the cathedral remained uncovered, open to the elements for two generations
before Brunelleschi came along and developed the technology to build the
dome that is there today.
Norman Maynard
On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 3:56 AM, Jim Heynderickx <jheynder@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, All
>
> The following is a quote from my blog of a larger article I'm working on.
> Drafts, drafts, drafts! Thanks!
>
> The Balance <http://www.k12converge.com/?p=3D469>
>
> Before doing this =93educational technology=94 thing, I made a small livi=
ng as
> a
> writer. I wrote for ERiC, the Educational Research Information Clearing
> House, way back in the 1980s. I wrote articles and research reports, at t=
he
> same time I wrote short stories and plays.
>
> [Original message snipped to comply with 200 line limit.]
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