Laying down the law

Of no direct relevance but at the same time something to think about is Roy Amara´s law: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effecgt in the long run.” In terms of IT and education I suspect this means that initial euphoria and even budgets become lost in long term lack of planning and political unreast.

For some more laws check http://tinyurl.com/6u2wg93

Plan that trip

Yes indeed, life with technology can be very similar to life with drugs … full of promise, potentially mind-enhancing and yes, just as dangerous and time-consuming. So, we need to be careful what we are taking and who we are dealing with. This article outlines some common pitfalls in implementing technology in Education and how they can be avoided. Excellent reading although, unfortunately, I suspect that many teachers who read it will throw their hands up in despair as they probably knew or have see all these pitfalls but have not been in a position to avoid them: teachers are all too often left out of the planning stage where budgets, image and politics can be more important that what is needed to make it all work effectively on the ground. The post is here: http://tinyurl.com/8x9tkck but take a minute to follow some of the links at the bottom of the article also.

Conference this

It is spring and conference timel. We are finalising preperations for the annual TESOL-SPAIN conference which takes place in Bilbao from March 9th. Check out some video and written interviews with some of the speakers here: http://www.tesol-spain.org/en/pages/42/meet-the-speakers.html

A little further afield is the IATEFL conferencce in Glasgow. They will also have a lot of conferrence material online so lots there for those of us who cannot make it also:  http://www.iatefl.org/glasgow-2012/46th-annual-conference-and-exhibition

Old fogies may know best

Here is a fascinating study into the use of technology in Canadian schools. Two statistics that stood out for me. Firstly, rather than digital natives it is often older, experienced teachers who are using and experimenting more with technology: you can’t beat experience and the confidence it brings. Secondly, students, “digital natives” (and I can see this with my own kids) need a lot of training to use these technologies effectively and safely. They can click but they are not necessarily very good at deciding what needs to be clicked on, or off.

http://tinyurl.com/837vog3