If you want to give teachers to professional tools they need, you'd provide access to technology for all students and teachers, as well as maintaining enough staff to troubleshoot technical issues. Additionally, many teachers aren't successfully trained in technology methodology and therefore Pre-service Teacher Programs should also focus on the Technology Component of teaching. My Master's Thesis provides a solution, and addresses the issue.
Integration of technology is an important proponent of building a global community; however, the inequity of access to technology is an issue to be considered. Poorer schools, especially Title I have dilapidated computers, compared to richer ones.
Well said! What a difference a word makes! Especially when one of the absolute best things about the Internet in my experience is how it crosses all kinds of national boundaries with ease. :-)
I wondered about this, too, Steve - after all, I would not have even known about this report unless I had read about at YOUR blog. At least in terms of the educational networks I am part of, news of this report had not yet spread - when I let people know about it, they told me it was the first they had heard of it.
So true for teachers AND so true for students: we take pride and are committed to the things we create, build, grow, own. In a small way, that can even happen here - the report is just a report, but where it becomes valuable for me is through this kind of dialogue. I am amazed and surprised (in a good way) that they allow these comments, and thanks to RSS, I saw that you had added your thoughts here, too.
Steve, I really agree about that - I've probably joined 20 or so online network to end up with the 2 or 3 that I participate in very regularly - so I too would be wary of any rigid measure of success; it's almost like I had to pass through all those other "failed" networks to make the successful one happen, as I learned just what it was I wanted, and didn't want, in the network I would participate in. Plurality, fluidity, spontaneity - those are all important factors!
The organic nature of COP growth would argue that these develop over time, may be uneven, often don't "gel" like we'd want them to. This is an argument for making sure there is the freedom to fail (hat tip to Clay Shirky) and allowing the ones that do flower to grow as the members want.
Who is the education community if it is not teachers and educators? I know I sound like a broken record, but giving them tools is great only if those are actually tools of creation--where they build their own communities and their personal learning networks.
I have to admit a negative reaction to the terms "efficiency" and "productivity" in this context. These drivers often lead to the creation of systems that, by virtue of not being collaboratively built but instead created for others, become inefficient and unproductive because they are not part of voluntary engagement.
If the students' learning is going to be increasingly self-directed, will the educators' as well? A "personal learning network" would to me be one that the educator chooses--or rather, the unique set of resources that the educator chooses.
What communities are these, and are their creators or active members being actively involved in the process of determining the values and opportunities that exist?
Comments by Section