Expert Perspectives


Note to Tablet Companies: Education is an Enterprise

Schools are one of the biggest markets for tablets. So why do districts have to do workarounds to manage the devices?

A Presenter's Highlights of FETC 2012

Each person who attends the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) arrives feeling the same buzz. For those who have a hunger to learn about technology and its effectiveness in education, it's like a natural high. People everywhere, all friendly faces, some you know from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, while so many more are new faces. All are open opportunities to engage in great conversations focused on one goal: to become better educators.

Should We Ban Cell Phones in the Classroom?

There are good arguments on both sides of the question. What's yours?

The Value of Connectivism

Today’s students have come to expect learning on demand. They are not afraid of technology, and speed is the name of the game. They multitask, think less linearly than those of us over 30, enjoy fantasy as an element of their lives, are less tolerant of passive activities, and use their tools to stay connected with each other. Nevertheless, this situation has implications for educators.

UNESCO’s 2nd Annual Mobile Learning Week

Mobile learning is really taking off! In developing nations, at least! We present a few highlights from UNESCO's 2nd Annual Mobile Learning Week, held at UNESCO’s Paris HQ, that we participated in recently.

Social Media: How to 'Sell It' to Your Team

Social media is something that many younger teachers will have a familiarity with outside of the classroom. Ask any colleague under the age of, say, 30, and it's fairly likely that he or she will have a profile on a social network like Facebook or MySpace. Business-facing social networks like LinkedIn have also seen explosive growth from educators in the last year.

The K-12 Web 2.0 Debate: Learning To Communicate

Good communication is central to good education, and teachers have long been aware of the importance of teaching students how and when to use various language forms and to what purpose. What is viewed as "regular" constantly changes, and, with the use of Web 2.0 tools, those changes are more rapid and pose continual challenges to K-12 teachers.

What Value-Added Assessments Won't Tell You About Effective Teachers

There's more to being an effective teacher than raising standardized test scores, yet test scores have gained widespread acceptance among the public as the key indicator of performance.

Getting Schools to Embrace Collaboration Tools

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN; http://www.cosn.org) recently released a report titled Collaboration in K-12 Schools: Anywhere, Anytime, Any Way. I helped produce the report as a volunteer member of CoSN’s Emerging Technology Committee, and will use it as the basis for my column.

The End of Liberal Arts Education?

Historic forces in higher education may have serious repercussions for K-12.

Whitepapers