204: A Privacy Story One of those emails arrived in my inbox recently that cause me to start a response, then another. One the third restart, I sent him an invite to a virtual meeting, started it, and waited for him to join. He summarized the situation he was facing: The story is not troubling Read More
All organizations have acceptable use policies which that define what users are allowed to do with devices and systems owned by the organization. These policies are approved by organization’s governing bodies (school board are generally responsible for adopting policy) and are intended to protect the organization and the systems they support. In general, the role Read More
Since the first desktop computers arrived in schools decades ago, several generations of computers have been installed in schools, and they reflect the changes we have seen in consumer computers. It is probably more accurate to use the term devices to describe the hardware users use to interact with information and other users. The original Read More
186: edtech for IT: Accessibility In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in the United States. This civil rights law is intended to ensure all individuals have access to public resources regardless of their disability status. For educators, this means the materials they use in class (such as textbooks) must be available to Read More
An excerpt from my 2022 book:
During one week when I was managing IT for a rural school, I encountered two examples of how educators do not understand the nature of the enterprise IT systems that we need in schools. On Monday, a teacher brought me a sale paper for a local box store retailer (it was early in the holiday Read More
193: edtech for IT: Assistive Technologies & Accessibility School IT professionals often collaborate with special education teachers, leaders, and consultants to select, install, configure, maintain, and manage assistive technologies necessary for students who need them. These devices include items such as Braille printers, keyboards for specialized input, specialized displays, assistive listening systems (for individual students Read More
Educators’ technology needs tend to be different from those encountered in other businesses and industries. Educators generally value flexible systems that allow them to assess the usefulness of software, sites, and services; and to respond to new discoveries and changing expectations quickly. Students who are just learning to read and write often find complicated systems Read More
Cleaning out a folder with old files, I discovered a proposal for an alternative to the traditional science project in which students all investigate a different question. I believed (10 years ago, and I still do) that it would be interesting and instructional to have all students devise their own methods for doing the investigation.
One of the most challenging issues related to digital information in schools is copyright. This is especially true in the time since one-to-one initiatives became common. One rationale for adding computing devices for each student to the budget was that textbooks (traditionally a very expensive resource) would no longer be necessary. While textbooks that are Read More