Most recent public comments by Christina Peterson https://nowcomment.com/users/80280 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883411 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883411 I agree that we need to be paying attention to the conversations and discussion going on about technology but if we are not administrators how to we get others in education to listen to us? Is the answer for us in this program to become administrators? Or is it that we become more informed and educated that administrators will start listening to us? Fri, 15 May 2020 21:34:53 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883391 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883391 Katie, I liked how you picked out certain words to identify a theme. He does seem to paint a picture of inequality and unequal distribution. I also have never thought about ed tech in the way he described. I want to believe that school districts are doing what they think is best for the students and teachers to improve education but Selwyn sees things differently. Unfortunately I think I'm starting to see that unequal distribution exits and school districts aren't always acting on behalf of students and teachers. Fri, 15 May 2020 21:13:45 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883343 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883343 Good questions to ask Katie. I agree that he could have been trying to promote some deeper thinking from the listeners. It's possible that (since he referred to his talk being part of a conference) that he was speaking to like-minded people who were familiar with the topics he was addressing. If the listeners already had some prior knowledge they may have better understood the message he was trying to get across. Fri, 15 May 2020 20:32:36 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883340 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883340 Yes, I agree with you Frida about the charismatic principals. When I first started working in an elementary school, the principal there was very interested in technology and pushed for a lot of new tools and training. The majority of the teachers that worked with me at the time were close retiring and felt that his ideas were unnecessary and didn’t want to learn the technology. Then that principal retired and we lost a lot of what he was trying to encourage us to do with technology. Eventually, my district hired an instructional technology specialist and that helped to keep things equal throughout the district. Before you were lucky if your principal was interested in investing in technology, now the instructional technology specialist helps to keep things the same in all the buildings and has a schedule of when to be in the buildings so everyone can get help if needed. Fri, 15 May 2020 20:20:47 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883327 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883327 I had an example about Smart Boards in my original reply to Katie but then I changed my mind. Smart Boards were one of my examples for the district being slow to implement and then deciding to not buy the product anymore. Everyone couldn't wait to get one and then after everyone had it the district said "we're not going to buy these anymore." Fri, 15 May 2020 19:42:02 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883323 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1883323 The issue that concerns me about slow, small-scale change is that the pace of technology moves so fast. If a school district is too slow to implement then by the time everyone receives the technology it could be obsolete or the district has to replace the technology that was purchased in the first round. I also have the “jump right in” mindset when trying new technology in the classroom but school districts seem to move at a slower pace. I understand why since they are spending the money on technology and they want to make the best decision but it can be frustrating waiting for them to make their decision. It’s also frustrating if you don’t agree with the choice they made. Fri, 15 May 2020 19:34:37 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1874675 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1874675 As I listened to the video, I really tried to understand the point he was trying to make with the concerns he listed. I understood that he wants those involved with educational technology to think about the vocabulary and words used when describing educational technology. I also understood that the main idea he was trying to get across was to be critical of what is being promised about implementing educational technology in schools. However, I found myself getting lost in the descriptions he was using. It reminded me of the way a politician or administrator answers questions. Instead of giving a direct answer, the person uses a lot of terminologies that dance around the question asked but don’t actually answer the question. I would have liked some examples specific to his concerns so I could have understood better the argument he was trying to make. Fri, 15 May 2020 20:32:36 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1874671 https://nowcomment.com/documents/200878?scroll_to=1874671 In reading Selwyn’s description of considering how technology will “fit with the whole-school context” it made me think a lot about how my school district requires the whole-school to use a specific type of technology and won’t allow teachers in the district to change to another type of technology even though they’ve given reasons why a different type of technology would be a better fit. I am one of three speech-language pathologists in my school district and a few years ago we asked our special education director for three iPads (one for each of us). Our director did not have an issue with the request and we provided her reports showing how the iPads were used in other districts and how we were the only speech pathologists in the area which included multiple school districts and our IU that did not have iPads. However, our request was denied by a person who “hates Apple products” and no matter how many times we tried to go around this person we could not get our request met. We were told, “the students use Chromebooks so you need to use Chromebooks too.” We continually showed any administrator or tech person how Chromebooks did not have the speech-language programs needed to use in therapy but were always redirected to talk to another person. This type of “one-size-fits-all” thinking in my district has been very frustrating to me. Fri, 15 May 2020 16:11:41 -0400