Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Lap tops are cool but....

Hi All,

I caught an article on-line...

The Article


...that highlighted a private school's new committment to lap top use. I wrote a letter to the author. See the following.

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Hi Julia,

I enjoyed the article about Santa Fe and their daring venture into the digital world. The essential question for me is, "How will education be DIFFERENT as a result of all of this new technology?" If this infusion of dollars and technology leads to a digital version of what they are already doing then it is a waste of time. For example, handing in an assignment in by e-mail, versus paper, will not lead to a difference in what is learned and how it is learned.

How is homework more meaningful? What new experiences or curricular topics can now be covered? What impact is this having on student engagement or homework completion rates? What is the metric for "success" that the school has adopted for this project? (particularly considering the other ways in which this HUGE amount of money can be spent on the students)

Thanks for the article. Keep up the good work!

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Did I ask the right questions? What do you think about lap top learning? Obviously, the devil is in the details. Yes? or No?

Do you think that we have a responsibility to ask reporters to frame better questions when covering these types of stories?


Jim :-)

1 comment:

Jim Forde said...

Here is an article about how South Dakota is struggling with the deployment of a stae-wide lap top initiative.

Here you go!

JIm :-)