Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Are schools past their "Electrolux Screenfridge" days?

The NYT ran an article the other day about some schools around the country that are buying iPads for all their students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/education/05tablets.html?emc=eta1

Both in the article itself and in the comments, there are those who say this is a great leap for education, and those that say the schools are wasting their money on yet another technology fad.

The lessons of Electrolux Screenfridge and On-Star -- early failures because the technology wasn't the full package it needed to be, but successes later when their tech stars aligned -- made me start to give more credence to those who are saying the iPad really IS different than failed tech-in-schools fads of the past... (it's flat, allowing for lots of eye contact and collaboration; it's fast; it's lighter than a typical textbook; it allows for image manipulation that brings lessons to life; etc....) Check it out!

No comments:

Post a Comment