Comments on: An iPod Touch in Every Classroom by Kelly Croy

By: George Churchwell

George Churchwell — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:30:53 +0000

We have a fantastic product to involve children in iPhone programming. We set up a site license so your students can create an iPhone “Spirit” application for them and your school

By: To Touch or Not to Touch…. « Ubiquitous Thoughts

To Touch or Not to Touch…. « Ubiquitous Thoughts — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:09:24 +0000

[...] An iPod Touch in Every Classroom by Kelly Croy, from Wes Fryer’s blog. Lots of odds and ends here. [...]

By: Ryan Collins

Ryan Collins — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:42:26 +0000

Am I the only person that sees dedicated “clickers” for student response systems a big waste of money when there is a way to use iPod Touches as a SRS with sites like pollanywhere.com?

By: Creating Custom iPhone and iPod Touch Flashcards with gFlash and Google Documents » Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:54:32 +0000

[...] past week, I attended most of Kelly Croy’s eTechOhio 2009 presentation, “An iPod Touch in Every Classroom.” Two of the applications Kelly mentioned during his presentation were gFlash+ and gFlashPro, which [...]

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:47:38 +0000

Paul: To a large degree I think these struggles over control and “instructionist” teaching versus truly student-centered, differentiated instruction which is focused on inquiry and self-direction is the same struggle Paulo Friere, John Dewey, and other reformers fought in. The arena is the same, but now it has a digital face. There are more points to the agenda, I do think the digital landscape presents different learning opportunities as well as needs for collaboration, but the CONTROL word you identify is at the center of the struggle.

My very limited experiences with “international schools” abroad suggests that many parents, like US parents, have very traditional expectations for students. I think one of the most important aspects of all this that we’re not talking about enough is ASSESSMENT. We’ve got to replace the current high school credits system based on seat time with more authentic measures of student knowledge and skills. Some of the most important work which needs to be done is in this area, I think.

Thanks for the links, I’m following them now…

By: Paul McMahon

Paul McMahon — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:25:34 +0000

Wes, I really hear the comments that you are making about the degree of control over the student devices limiting true transformation in schools. Here in Hong Kong many International Schools have recently discovered 1:1 computing via some very heavy marketing from Apple. The schools are viewing the devices a little like jet engines for stagecoaches, to borrow from Papert. Here http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/2009/01/name-of-game.html is a recent post from a librarian in one of these schools as an example of how “controlling” the schools are. I think we will see a lot of this as schools try to bring in technology to support what they have always done rather than let it “Transform” as you so rightly mention.
I continue to look for more ways to convince educators that they have to “let go”. Problem is that it will be a rollercoaster and sometimes it might be messy with kids off task but at other times it will be truly fantastic. The big issue in the International School scene is “accountability” and the leadership here thinks that if kids are seen to be coming to school with a game on their laptop then they will look like they are asleep on their watch.
I think we need to do a lot more to support leadership to understand the change that technology can allow in our schools and to embrace it properly. See http://xpatasia.edublogs.org/2009/02/02/is-strong-leadership-in-education-coming-anytime-soon/

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:47:59 +0000

I totally missed the fact that there was no WiFi for participants at the keynote, Jenny! At least there may be some solace in the fact that Ohio isn’t alone in missing WiFi at the state edtech conference. Oklahoma didn’t have it either at OTA last year. Our conference is next week, and I’ll be happily surprised if we have it there.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:08:15 +0000

Some of the attendees are also bummed that we didn’t have much wifi access at the conference either. There was a wifi hotspot in the old cafe in the mid-section of the main hallway.