Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wendy Drexler is a Genius
Wendy Drexler is a Genius!
This assignment is brilliant! Finally a practical application for blogs and constructivism! I love the way that the RSS Reader and the Blogs could be used to measure how much knowledge had been gained on a particular subject, not to mention the final project. This really fits in with where the chapter alludes that we are heading. People are connected and our schooling should reflect that and tap into that connection. All of our media outlets are going to the internet. It’s only a matter of time until televisions with ANSI tuners will not be necessary because all of your television will stream to your house. And eventually the Internet will be completely wireless and mobile broadband (controlled by the cell phone companies right now) will become the standard by which the internet is delivered to the user.
I see the mobile broadband as the future because until home internet accessibility is equitable for all K-12 students, teachers aren’t going to be able to take that next step with digital assignments(like the assignment in the video). This student obviously had internet at home and a good command of computer skills. Mobile Broadband is the only feasible option for a school district. There is no way that a school district is going to contract with a company using a cabled network (RoadRunner, Comcast). Having to install at each house would be too costly. Contracting with the cell phone companies on a student rate for the Mobile Broadband and the USB receiver makes so much more sense. No lines to run and cell service is already everywhere people are. Eventually all cell towers will support 3G and 4G technology so that data transport will be even quicker.
The next question will be getting modern computers into the hands of students and how does a school system support laptops/netbooks? And how do school districts avoid the courtroom? Does anyone have any ideas?
I don’t have an idea yet for making modern technology equitable and available to students, but I do have an idea for filtering the types of content students could get into using the school provided internet service. O.K. , The manufacturer of the Mobile Broadband USB receivers will be hard coded with a default gateway address that routes them through an approved web filter. We use “Websense” in our school district and it would just be a matter of upgrading the routers within the cell towers, a cost to the Cell companies that will probably be covered by Government Money.
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I am very humbly honored to be considered a genius. LOL. Seriously, I am not a genius as I struggle with the questions you you have on equity and policy. It is very important to provide students with a solid foundation in digital responsibility, digital literacy, organization of online content, respectful socializing and collaborating, and rigorous synthesizing of information. These are the processes that came out of my dissertation research. If we can do these things effectively with our students, the issues of policy become less of a threat. Thank you for sharing the video.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that I agree with you that Drexler is a “genius,” but I definitely agree that her video did show, “a practical application for blogs and constructivism.” You really make a good point that our society is so well connected and networked so our schools should be too. I think that using the technology that most students are already using at home for educational purposes in school just makes sense. I don’t know why all schools aren’t already doing it!
ReplyDeleteI also liked your explanation of schools using Mobile Broadband. I never really thought about how the Internet was getting to our schools now or how it should get there in the future. Your idea of delivering it through a cell phone company and even giving a “student rate” is great. Keep telling people so that hopefully it can be a reality sometime soon. That would just make everything so much easier!
-Christie
Your idea on schools using mobile broadband is brilliant! Have you ever heard of poll everywhere? http://www.polleverywhere.com/ You can ask students a question and have them text the answer and the answers will show up real time. Students can also go to the website to input the answer. Fun way of gathering data. More and more charter and private schools are giving students laptops to use for the year, the skills that they can acquire are so much greater then the traditional pencil and paper ways. You can easily differentiate lessons and assignments based on an individuals needs. GREAT POST!
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