Education

Mulling Over Ed-Tech During Lunch

By Katie Ash — October 08, 2010 1 min read
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We are in the middle of our second live event here in Greater Boston today, which is focusing on personalizing learning for students with technology. We just wrapped up the first part of our day with some lunch discussions about pertinent ed-tech topics. For those of you who aren’t here today, here are some discussion points mentioned by the table moderators.

At the tables focused on finding funding for ed-tech projects, the general sentiment was that everyone is being asked to do more with less so often that school staff say they sometimes feel they are expected to do everything with nothing. A few participants mentioned taking advantage of resources kids already have, such as cell phones, smart phones, and mobile devices, that they in many cases are already bringing to school.

At the tables about online professional development, some suggested that just as we focus on personalizing learning for students, professional development for teachers should also be individualized to their needs. Many who discussed mobile computing for learning did not have mobile computing initiatives in their schools or districts, but were all interested in how to move toward 1-to-1 classrooms.

The table where I sat discussed online course taking and the difficulties involved in starting an online course at the district-level. We decided a major obstacle for districts was the lack of a Consumer Reports for online learning, since many folks don’t know which companies or organizations to work with. Another table had concerns about seat-time requirements that could stymie the potential online course taking has to extend the learning day.

Overall, we’ve had some great discussions. Check out the Education Week events page to look through some of the presentations and sessions we’ve had here today.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Digital Education blog.