dawblack posted on January 27, 2008 08:18
Here is a recently posted article from Technology and Learning about the Top Ten Tech Trends. Allow me to take a moment to share my thoughts on each of these trends:
1. Data Mining is Earning Its Keep: It is clear that being able to secure accurate data on different educational topics makes a difference in building a case for new hardware, software, and services. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a lot of hard data about Lutheran schools as a system that can enable us to build support for our schools and their programs. It seems as if we need some folks to take the step to engage in this type of research. Perhaps one of the Concordias or doctoral students with dissertations can begin a much more intentional approach to data.
2. Cyberbullying is in the Spotlight: Certainly Lutheran schools are not immune to type of problem. Creating a culture of God-pleasing computer use in our schools is of great importance. We have an advantage over public schools in dealing with this problem is that we can clearly share the theological root issue with cyberbullying and use the discussion of Internet safety as a way for God to be glorified -- not just as a discussion to help protect kids.
3. Twenty First-Century Skills Have a Foot in the Door: My LEA Convocation presentation is going to be on preparing the 21st century student. What skills do the 21st century student need for future success? What makes the 21st century student different than students in the past? What 21st century skills do teachers need to embrace in order to effectively lead 21st century students? These and other questions will be discussed in my presentation. I'm hoping to be able to discuss a little theory and philosophy for the first half of the presentation, and provide many links to practical resources during the second half. This is a very important discussion for Lutheran schools in which to engage in order to remain educationally relevant in the 21st century.
4. Digital Content is on the Rise: No doubt this is true, but are Lutheran schools positioned to take advantage of the benefits of this trend? What about the many rural and inner city schools that struggle with funding and access to technology? Will they be left behind? These issues highlight the necessity for Lutheran schools to band together as never before and recognize that there is a greater mission outside of what we provide our own students and communities. The Lutheran School Portal is one way in which Lutheran schools are joining together, sharing resources of value, and providing vendors with a unified purchasing block where small schools may benefit from the leverage provided by our larger schools.
5. We Like Learning at Leisure: The model of learning only at one place during a specific time period is ebbing. Our mobile and wired society demands solutions for allow learning to take place on an individual's time frame, not a school's time frame. How will Lutheran schools adjust? How can we take advantage of this phenomenon to provide even greater opportunities for people to hear about Jesus? Shouldn't Lutheran schools be at the forefront of reaching people in ways that make a difference for them? I expect these online learning opportunities to explode exponentially over the next five to ten years. Are we ready for this?
6. Personal Responders are Sweeping the K-20 Market: I was struck by the number of student response systems that were on display in the vendor area at FETC. Helping students become more active in their own learning and providing them with instant feedback is always a good thing.
7. Mobile Tools are Driving the Path of Education Reform: The day is coming quickly when every student will have at least one electronic tool, and possibly more, at their disposal while they are in school. I agree with the article that the cell phone is the tool to watch for the future. I'm wondering if this will not be the hardware of choice for educational computing and access in the future. In our area, so many students were given laptops for Christmas. What happens when our students and parents begin to demand access to our network for these machines during the school day? Are we ready for that? And what about those students who can't afford such tools from home? How can we make sure that they don't fall behind? Also, what about safety and security if all this expensive personal hardware is around the building? Lots of questions, but we are starting to look at answers to these questions.
8. Bandwidth is Suddenly an Issue: We are already facing that at my school. There are times when the demands are choking bandwidth. Now add to this all the bandwidth sucking applications suddenly available through the Internet as a whole and there may be a crisis building. Access depends on bandwidth, so that bandwidth will become more precious and coveted in the coming years? Pricing structures similar to water charges which are based on usage may be coming soon.
9. The Penguin is Snowballing: The penguin is the symbol for Linux, an open source operating system. Open source tools are not widely found in Lutheran schools, but more schools, like our own, are studying where open source might fit within the school network. Certainly the cost is right, but training and access issues are present. Is it possible that Lutheran technology specialists might be able to make contributions that would tailor open source tools specifically for Lutheran schools? I'd like to think that this could happen. This might be a way for schools to feel comfortable embracing open source at a fraction of the cost.
10. The Participatory Web: Where are blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and podcasts leading us in education? We are just now getting a grasp of how these tools engage students. Let's not forget that these tools are not simply tools for engagement, but that they need to address specific 21st century skills in order for them to be most effective.
Whew....this is probably the longest blog post I've ever written! What are your thoughts on these important trends? Are there trends you see that are different? Where do Lutheran schools fit in with all of this? Share your ideas as a comment to this post. I'd love for this to generate a meaningful discussion on the future of technology and Lutheran schools