For much of the history of computers in schools, the “timeliness” of repairs was ill-defined and repair deadlines were not critical. When computers were only one or two per classroom and they were only marginally used in the curriculum, a computer being inoperable for a few days or even weeks posed little disruption to students’ Read More
Category: Edtech for IT
Thought on Network Security & Educators
As educational professionals, we have unusual access to computer systems and data. We are likely to be users of many computing devices. At work, you have classroom computers, computer rooms, library computers, and mobile devices that you and those around you use. These are the devices that are most tightly secured. There are sophisticated firewalls, Read More
Let’s Diversify Computer Education
I heard through the grapevine—one comprising trusted individuals—that a former student was interviewing for a job as an IT professional. My name came up in their conversations as members of the interview team know me and knew the candidate had been my student. The message I got through the grapevine is that my former student Read More
On Video Editing in Schools
Among many users, multimedia has been replaced with video, so video editing has increased in importance as an education technology in recent years. Whether teachers are creating video to supplement instruction or students are creating video to demonstrate learning or student performances are captured on video, there are situations in which the original footage needs Read More
On the Obsolescence of #edtech
For the first two decades of the history of personal computers in schools (from about 1980 until about 2000), the primary goal of school and technology leaders was to put computers on educators’ and students’ desks. During that period, educators were installing the school’s first computers, then replacing those with multimedia-capable computers, and then replacing Read More
IT for Teaching
The tasks that teachers accomplish using IT systems can be differentiated into two categories. First, are the highly predictable tasks that resemble those performed by business users. IT professionals can plan and test functionality. These tasks include many of the data management tasks such as recording attendance and grades for which teachers are responsible. It Read More
Some Observations of Generative AI
Generative AI has been a “thing” for more than a year. My colleagues in education seem to be surviving despite the warnings that “the sky is falling.” Some are working to integrate it into their instruction; some are avoiding it. I was a student when handheld calculators became ubiquitous, I was a teacher when computers Read More
Is It an Innovation?
Consider the overhead projector as an educational innovation. Prior to the overhead projector, a teacher wrote notes and drew pictures on slate boards with chalk. When writing or drawing, a teacher’s back was to the students and the contents were bounded by the edges of the slate. With the overhead projector, teachers faced the students Read More
Computers Arrive in Schools
In the 1970’s computers entered the consumer market, and hobbyists began purchasing computers. By 1981, personal computers could be purchased for less than $1000, and amateur enthusiasts (including children) were writing their own programs to satisfy their own interests and curiosities, but consumer computers were still marginalized and largely a hobby. Joseph Deken, a statistician Read More
On Computer Mediated Communication in Schools
The events I recorded in the papers I wrote as an undergraduate student and in my journal kept during my first few years working as a teacher and the few surviving lesson plans and resource folders from my pre-Internet years (recall that I entered the teaching profession using an Apple IIc computer in 1988), all Read More