Ubiquitous Computing Journal March 20, 2009
Ubiquitous—weaving something into our life until we don’t notice it anymore. Some parts of technology are already there for me—like email and SKYPE but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
This was a great discussion! I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the AT&T classroom and some of the learning that goes on there! How great would that be to have all that available in your own classroom! Most of my peers agreed that it would cause us to teach differently and students to learn differently.
These types of tech rich classrooms open the students up to the global classroom—it gives them connections outside of the classroom, to their community, to their country and perhaps into space (like when the President or students get to connect with the International Space Station).
I think most of us agreed that a classroom like that would allow us to become student centered and more flexible. That the digital divide gives a huge disadvantage to districts that can not afford a lot of technology. It was refreshing to know that technology can level the playing field for disadvantaged or special need students.
Since our middle school is just turning 10 this year we are perceived as the island within our district. We were wired for technology. Our technology was brand new when we opened. We have a great media/tech team (boasting a little bit) that has been able to think outside the box, spend money to expand our technology and we have a district that supports technology with a lot of professional development. I think I counted 78 summer courses that are free to our staff using technology. We are to a point now that we are not just talking about Web2.0 tools that we are implementing them and teaching others how to integrate them into their content areas! Some days I feel like that AT&T classroom—we have all the stuff but are we using all to its potential? Not even close yet! Karen