As we catch our breath after a successful sharing and learning ASB Un-Plugged experience, I realize that what is new to many is not so new any longer. As a school we continue to wrestle, embrace, and benefit from our one-to-one program and the integration of technology.
Yet, the world is not standing still and technology continues to offer accelerated and different learning opportunities. Do we need to be at the bleeding edge? I certainly don’t think we do. But we do need to be thinking beyond one-to-one as the commonly accepted view of a school that is integrating technology well.
Do take a few minutes to also review the 2010 Horizon Report. This report provides a sneak preview of what’s coming our way. The BMW video is now a couple years old.
The scale and cost of applying this in schools is prohibitive now. But imagine the enriched experience for a medical school student in surgery, a student athlete practicing alone or learning alone, imagine schools as we don’t know them today, yet still highly, highly relevant. What will that look like? How will communities come together physically and on screen? OK, a bit extreme, but schools looking to the horizon will be relevant and in demand.
So a few smaller steps in between…
Consider this vision of technology use (two to three years from now) and the implications for our current reality and future actions.
- Tablets have become slates with either infrared keyboards or foldable keyboards. Touch, gesture use is integrated.
- Google or another company creates a faster internet backbone and almost all information we ever need is on the web.
- Students can bring any brand of tablets/slates to school. Cloning is no longer required. Students download their books or from the web onto their slates/tablets. Some even save their books and notes online.
Games and Learning
Both students and adults love playing online/computer games. How can we harness the potential of games to enhance students’ creativity and critical thinking skills? What is our vision for the use of games for learning?
Think about the technological changes that have, and are continuing to impact digital reading. What do the trends indicate? Paint a one year and two year vision for Digital Reading. Implications for what a library is? What does a truly 21st century library and media center look like?
Three Screen Schools….
I think we are headed and need to embrace the Three Screen School. Small, medium, and large. …This can be small: calculator/phone, medium: laptop/slate/ipad/reader, large: a projection/ smartboard. The interface required will determine the screen that we interact with.
The mind-bending weekend with educators from 64 schools from every continent, and our experts Scott McLeod, Scott Klososky, Bruce Dixon, Helen Barrett, Doug Johnson did shed light on the future. I saw many others with flashlight in hand and hungry for the hunt. There is no better time to be in education!