EDUC 8848: Emerging and Future Technology

Tetrad: iPod and MP3/4 Player

Enhances                       Obsoletes

Music sound quality         CD player
Music portability              Walkman

Retrieves                       Reverses

Feeling of "being there"   Online/cloud storage
Boomboxes                     iPhone/Smart Phone
                                    (although this would
                                     have already happened
                                     by now, unless
                                     something new comes)


People have always wanted to take their music with them. Car radios allow music to go wherever the person traveled. But this was limited to where the car could travel. Portable radios allowed people to travel to different places cars could not but the sound quality and reception were not always good and people were at the mercy of what the radio stations played. Portable cassette players and Walkmans allowed people to take their music with them. But the storage was a problem; people could not carry all their music with them. iPods and MP3/4 players allow people to take the music with them anywhere, anytime. And they can take all of it, provided they have the storage for it. But, they are limited to the device they are using. The creation of cloud computing and storage is changing that. People now can access their music from any device with internet capabilities, thus allowing people to “borrow” a device should they not have one at the ready.

EDUC 8848: Emerging and Future Technology

Emerged Technology

Promethean Boards

Promethean boards (and SMART boards) came into my geographical location with not much fanfare at first. Then without an obvious catalyst Boom! Now they are everywhere and everyone wants one! With all these boards have to offer in improving the educating our students, there are pitfalls.

I will skip the infrastructure issues. First, there is the learning curve. Each teacher has to be taught not only how to operate the equipment but utilize the software. Then there is the tremendous investment of time for lesson plans to be created, adapted, or revamped for usage with the new hardware and software. The potential is seemingly limitless yet the investment of human time and effort needs to be taken into account. Some teachers who have done the same thing year after year are not inclined to change or adapt what they do to incorporate the new technology. Others find that it takes a few hours to reinvent what they do to include the new technology. The learning and time investment is huge, especially at the very beginning.

The boards do bring more interaction into the classroom. They can make lesson come alive. Whole class active participation is possible. The boards provide a platform to reach many different learning styles as possible while encouraging participation and risk-taking on the part of the students. It allows and encourages teachers to bring the world into the classroom for students. It helps transform a class of passive observers into active knowledge creators. There is also a whole online community of educators from around the world sharing thoughts, ideas, and lesson plans.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the number one thing I think schools can do to get the most out of this technology is provide teachers with ONGOING training and support. And in some cases, a little mandated encouragement!

Check out these websites and videos about Promethean Boards:

http://mediasuite.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=m0c671q1

http://prometheanlearning.com/us/

http://www.prometheanworld.com/

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/