Tips by Tony

A recent Education Week article (Whiteboards’ Impact on Teaching Seen as Uneven) looked at the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the classroom, and used a combination of anecdotal evidence and a recent study to show that educators are split on the issue. This article could have been written about most educational technology initiatives – just replace “Whiteboards” with laptops, cellphones, iPods, Twitter, or any other bit of technology.

As an IT guy, I get a lot of questions from frustrated computer users: co-workers, friends, family, even complete strangers. Sometimes I know the answer off the top of my head, but more often I do a quick Google search to find the answer. I can usually find the answer in less than five minutes.

There’s no question the Twilight series of books from Stephanie Meyer has taken the world by storm. Teen and pre-teen girls as well as gown women are swooning over Edward and his hunky vampire brethren. The second movie in the series, New Moon opened last night to packed theaters. I’ve spoken with several educators who are big fans of the series. The problem is, Twilight is bad for kids (and adults.) The writing is horrible and the message the books send to young girls is all wrong, which is why the books should be studied in school.

This started as an article extolling the benefits of the free OpenOffice suite versus the not-free Microsoft Office suite, but morphed into a more general rant on the importance of teaching general technology concepts, not specific software applications or suites.

The question is, how do we get to the point where all teachers are embracing the idea that proper use of technology can make learning more meaningful? The resources are out there. Example lesson plans exist. How do we get past the inertia? How do we convince teachers to seek out new ways of using technology?