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eSchool News online - Wikis test students' research skills
Wikipedia and other reference sites that allow users to submit and edit
content themselves are creating new challenges for educators. Experts say
the rise of these kinds of web sites underscores the need for educators to
teach students strong information-literacy skills.
Scan the classrooms, labs, and libraries of Empire High School and you'll find laptop computers, digital projectors, and wireless connections, but nowhere in the specially designed facility just outside Tucson, Arizona, will you find a textbook. No 30- pound backpacks, no armloads of classics, no future lumbar cases for chiropractors serving the neighborhood surrounding this outpost of the Vail Unified School District, in Vail, Arizona.
Adopt and Adapt
The biggest question about technology and schools in the twenty-first century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia? First, it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption (keeping in mind, of course, that schools are not typical of anything.) It's typically a four-step process:
Dabbling.
Doing old things in old ways.
Doing old things in new ways.
Doing new things in new ways.
From Edutopia Dec/Jan 2006
Published by the The George Lucas Educational Foundation
Project Inkwell
The goal of SNS Project Inkwell® is to accelerate the deployment of appropriate technologies onto K-12 desktops worldwide.
Project Inkwell Mission Statement:
Inkwell intends to be the standards body for computing platforms for pre-K through 12 education.
Our goal is to greatly increase the size and effectiveness of the pre-K through 12 education technology market by managing the synthesis of functional specifications for a ubiquitous computing platform to be employed when and where students and educators engage in learning, teaching, and professional tasks.
Blogs Catching On as Tool for Instruction
Education Week 12-14-05