The Tools Are Changing: Focus on the Goal
The keynote speaker at the 2008 National Council of Teachers of English, Mark Prenskey, a teacher and education writer perhaps best known for coining the terms digital native and digital immigrant, said the following about the shifts in technology in education:
“PowerPoint, for example, is a tool (noun) for presenting (verb). But it will likely be replaced in our students’ lifetimes (and is already being replaced in many places) by Flash and other, better, presentation tools. E-mail is a tool for communicating. But it has already been replaced, among many students, by texting and even Twitter. (“E-mail is for old people,” say many students.) Wikipedia is a tool for learning. But it is being supplanted (or supplemented) by tools like YouTube and advanced search.” (http://marcprensky.com/verbs-and-nouns/)
We are currently in the midst of a technological renaissance. For many years Microsoft Office was almost the only office suite available, and was the only office suite adopted in mass. In contrast, today there are a huge number of options with similar functionality that have a significant market share. For example, according to US World Report, 66 of the top 100 colleges use Google docs, a free cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Office. On the device front, people used to describe themselves as being a PC or an Apple person. Now there are iOS people, Android people and Chrome people, and not just in small numbers. For example, LA Unified School district has pledged to put an iPad in the hands of every student and 22% of US schools have deployed Chromebooks. (http://fur.ly/0/busdtch) Today there are many more viable options in terms of both software and hardware and all this increased competition has made devices cheaper, more reliable, and easier to use.
Along with this renaissance of new devices has also come the shift into cloud computing. Software like Reading Wonders and Google docs allow you to login from any device and be greeted by software that largely looks and works the same. The device you are using goes from dictating your experience to being a transparent portal to a website that minimally differentiates in functionality when viewed on a MacBook laptop versus an Android tablet.
Unfortunately, not all of our software has made the shift to becoming device-agnostic and we currently find ourselves in a difficult situation with products like iStation that mandate a narrow device set to use. This device specificity makes it difficult if not impossible for it to be used as recommended, which is 120 minutes/student/week for Tier 3 students. As we consider future adoptions for Math or RTI, it is important that we look at the digital components and how well they match up with our device ecosystem to ensure we have a good match and can use the new tools as prescribed. Additionally, to shackle ourselves to traditional devices with higher upfront costs, much more support needs, and lower reliability for a few specific software titles doesn’t make sense, especially since these tools change so quickly, and would prevent us from attaining the level of technological integration needed to be successful with the Common Core Standards.
“PowerPoint, for example, is a tool (noun) for presenting (verb). But it will likely be replaced in our students’ lifetimes (and is already being replaced in many places) by Flash and other, better, presentation tools. E-mail is a tool for communicating. But it has already been replaced, among many students, by texting and even Twitter. (“E-mail is for old people,” say many students.) Wikipedia is a tool for learning. But it is being supplanted (or supplemented) by tools like YouTube and advanced search.” (http://marcprensky.com/verbs-and-nouns/)
We are currently in the midst of a technological renaissance. For many years Microsoft Office was almost the only office suite available, and was the only office suite adopted in mass. In contrast, today there are a huge number of options with similar functionality that have a significant market share. For example, according to US World Report, 66 of the top 100 colleges use Google docs, a free cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Office. On the device front, people used to describe themselves as being a PC or an Apple person. Now there are iOS people, Android people and Chrome people, and not just in small numbers. For example, LA Unified School district has pledged to put an iPad in the hands of every student and 22% of US schools have deployed Chromebooks. (http://fur.ly/0/busdtch) Today there are many more viable options in terms of both software and hardware and all this increased competition has made devices cheaper, more reliable, and easier to use.
Along with this renaissance of new devices has also come the shift into cloud computing. Software like Reading Wonders and Google docs allow you to login from any device and be greeted by software that largely looks and works the same. The device you are using goes from dictating your experience to being a transparent portal to a website that minimally differentiates in functionality when viewed on a MacBook laptop versus an Android tablet.
Unfortunately, not all of our software has made the shift to becoming device-agnostic and we currently find ourselves in a difficult situation with products like iStation that mandate a narrow device set to use. This device specificity makes it difficult if not impossible for it to be used as recommended, which is 120 minutes/student/week for Tier 3 students. As we consider future adoptions for Math or RTI, it is important that we look at the digital components and how well they match up with our device ecosystem to ensure we have a good match and can use the new tools as prescribed. Additionally, to shackle ourselves to traditional devices with higher upfront costs, much more support needs, and lower reliability for a few specific software titles doesn’t make sense, especially since these tools change so quickly, and would prevent us from attaining the level of technological integration needed to be successful with the Common Core Standards.