iPads vs. Textbooks

Yes, I think that Georgia has a great idea to solve budget woes in education; purchasing iPads for every student so that teachers can use OER for instruction instead of textbooks. Multimedia platforms, creative apps, and tweeting about what they learned to teach others - may not be the answer but it is in the right direction.
http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2011/02/01/tommie-williams-state-considering-ipads-for-students/

Chatting with Dr. Tony Picciano today about this over lunch. Perhaps this is the future of our high school educational resources? Perhaps. I wonder what his response will be.

Online Learning

I see in this article that the students of today need to be coddled with technology. Yes, perhaps this is the time that we must change from on campus learning to online learning, even for k-12. Look at how many students use cell phones (maybe NOT smart phones, but they are getting there) and the internet daily. How much time do they spend on these devices? A lot. Therefore we must embrace their interests and develop learning AROUND the web. Find out what your students are doing online and then foster inquiry based lessons that support the state standards. You will trick the students into having fun learning.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Colleges-of-Education-Are/21862/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

YouTube releases alternative language captioning!

This is huge for ESL learners in any grade level or in higher ed. We, as teachers, will be able to share videos that support the curriculum in classrooms where students struggle to get the information at hand. Hopefully with this new technology, more information will be available to our students. I taught Alternative School and often wanted to show videos. Some students didn't speak English and didn't understand the video. The concepts will now be available to them in their language so that the students will be able to collaborate with others after viewing. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/04/youtube-launches-auto-captions-for-all-videos/