School Board News

BoardBuzz was struck by a recent posting on the Conversation Edge-ucation blog by Brett Collingwood examining the difference between content consumption and content creation. It is essential that school districts recognize the distinction – especially as we all struggle to do more with less in these days of tight budgets.

Collingwood points out that there are many devices being used by students that are fine for consuming content –getting assignments, reviewing classroom notes, basic online research, for example. Many cell phones can fulfill these tasks. The next step in the learning process however, often requires a different type of technology. For a student to complete an assignment, he or she usually has to write a paper, create a spreadsheet, or put together a presentation, and this is where content creation comes into play.

Collingwood makes the point that some devices being promoted heavily these days, such as the new tablet computer models, may not come equipped with the capabilities needed to successfully complete content creation. When compared to a laptop PC for example, many tablets do not have the necessary ports to allow connection with external devices such as external CD/DVD drives. The lack of an external drive can cause problems with software installations, and – this really caught BoardBuzz‘s attention–drive up costs when schools need to purchase additional hardware. In many cases tablets also do not allow external keyboards to be connected, causing even more difficulties for students attempting to create content.

With limited budgets, it’s more important than ever that school leaders educate themselves about which education technology tools work best –and most cost-effectively. The 2010 T+L Conference will be focused on these issues, including sessions on how to do more with less, how to most effectively integrate digital content into classrooms, and best practices involving open source and other tools.

The Obama administration recently released its first National Education Technology Plan, with the goal of raising national college completion rates from 40 to 60% in the next ten years.

In a recent Education Week article, the Director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology, Karen Cator, spoke about the Plan. She stressed that it is important to not only set the bar higher but also to get more kids to exceed the bar. The Plan stresses 1:1 computing and the role that technology plays in customizing the learning for individual student needs. Mobile learning devices will also play an important role, so that learning can take place outside as well as inside the classroom.

According to Cator, one of the keys is to make this personalized learning more interactive, echoing a theme BoardBuzz is hearing a lot about these days – student engagement.

Cator will be leading a session entitled “A Discussion of the National Education Technology Plan” at the upcoming NSBA Annual Conference, April 10-12, where she will outline the details of the plan and answer questions in an interactive format.

BoardBuzz was really excited to see the large quantity of comments posted to a blog item over on the T+L Blog earlier this week. It seems to us that there are quite a few students out there in cyber world who are reading the blog.  The blog item centered around whether or not the keyboard or the pen produced better writing — and the student bloggers voiced their preference of writing instruments and gave many good reasons why they prefer either the keyboard or the pen.

Those students in favor of the keyboard prefer its ease of editing and organization – noting the increase in the readability of their work. Some appreciate the relative speed at which they can record their thoughts. And, the luxury of the spelling/grammar check function helps some students to polish their finished product while learning to spell correctly. Our “green” bloggers value the keyboard for its role in the reduction of paper waste. Many students say they use the keyboard as a way to stay connected to the latest technologies and as a channel to upload their thoughts to the world.

On the other hand, those students in favor of the pen noted that writing allows them to learn through muscle memory. Some students feel greater focus when working with pen and paper, sometimes due to the temptation of the internet. A few bloggers pointed out that many standardized tests continue to require hand written essays in their testing. Lastly, a number of money conscious students appreciate the affordable cost of pen and paper.

One student argues for both keyboard and pen use “I find the advantages of writing via computer and pen both too valuable to sacrifice. Students benefit from both methods, and, as usual, having two options is much more effective than only having one.”

While another student looks to the future “It is a good skill to be able to hand write and students need that skill; but in the world we live in today not knowing how to use technology and the computer will affect you a lot in the future. Therefore we should have and use both skills to the best of our abilities.”

In the end, it could just come down to personal preference. One blogger, explains “Maybe this sounds silly, but the way I see it, it’s all dependent on the individual. Just because one study says this and another study says that doesn’t necessarily mean there is a “better” way to write.”

Keyboard vs .Pen – the storm continues to rage . . . follow it on the T+L Blog!