With poetic timing, I was reminded today of one of the reasons we are learning in a blog. One of our great support staff noticed on Google analytics that ZDNet has become a top referring site to our ETEC 522 blog. The reason is that Allie’s analysis of ZDNet’s predictions caught the original author’s attention […]
Continue reading Reverberations in the Blogosphere Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Christopher Dawson and Adam Garry each offer 5 predictions to make up the ZDNet Top 10 EdTech predictions for 2011. Dawson is the ZDNet education blogger and vice-president of marketing for WizIQ, an online learning platform, while Garry is manager of global professional learning for Dell. While Dawson interviewed Garry for his predictions, Dawson remains […]
Continue reading ZDnet’s uneven 2011 predictions Posted in: Uncategorized, Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Nice work. It seems a common problem that some people are gadget focused. I suppose in the Ed Tech realm this is similar to people who are “solution focused” meaning they don’t do a proper needs analysis to determine what the problems are and what root causes should be addressed.
I suspect the issue that “solutions-focused” people miss is the prerequisites of the community. Until a community has the required foundations in place (comfort level, supports, awareness of the problems that can be solved, willingness to take the risks required by the solution, etc.), a technology is not going to have much effect. With the proper foundations, a very basic technology can have huge effects. Without the proper foundations, an advanced technology can be a huge waste of resources.
The disconnect between futurists and users is the failure to develop the necessary community.
You are so right about persons being gadget focused. It is just frightening sometimes at the way we focus on the end product and ignore the process. Persons of that nature ignore the natural power of the brain and think that a piece of gadget must be involved in every task. There must always be a balance in the learning situation where we go beyond the gadget and even try and get more from it than its prescribed use.
Might this ‘community’ be better developed with more inclusion of learner’s in the needs assessment process? While this likely less possible in child education it is a key principle in adult education. I think in the case of some of the new technologies, the learners are left out of the needs assessment and developing process which can lead to missing root causes of the problems. As David mentions if a community of learners does not feel safe, supported or willing to take required risk, new technology is unlikely to solve the problem that stems from these deeper foundations.
Hi David and Jay,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments on my post! I’m in full agreement with you that the absence of a needs-assessment – or in this case the notion that needs assessment is paramount – is a real issue with the gadget or solutions-focused crowd. Thanks for hitting that one on the head :). I do find that Garry, whose predictions focus on shifts in education, is quite different from Dawson in this regard.
I wonder if somehow doing needs assessment *for* the gadget crowd could be a venture in and of itself?
Something that I like in both of your honing in on the idea of the community is that learning communities are diverse (amongst themselves, never mind within a given community), and no single technology will fit all. I suppose that’s why I feel a little uncomfortable with some of the overwhelming tablet enthusiasm.
Good observation. The diversity of learners in a given learning community presents a problem with the one-size fits all approach and requires educators to consider multi-faceted technologies that attempt to encompass different styles of learning…and teaching!
Wow! You said it all when you wrote “I’ll have to do a lot of legwork to see their applicability to educational practice.” Exactly and well put. I think this is the challenge for all teachers who wish to effectively use the avalanche of technology currently being purchased for schools. I wish a larger portion of the budgets would go towards paying for ongoing, long term support and professional development so teachers can wield these tools in precise and purposeful ways in their classrooms.
[…] read a very interesting critique of one of my articles the other day. A student at the University of British Columbia reviewed my “Top 10 Ed Tech predictions for 2011″ and concluded that the piece, a […]
Just wanted to share my roundabout response to your post:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/can-a-gadget-guy-also-be-an-education-guy/4692
Your points are well-taken and I especially like the idea you noted in the comments above about a business model around educational technology needs assessments. I often go back to the good old SDLC (and mention it in the presentation I embedded in my response) – but how many technical project managers make it into education? Not many, meaning there is a large, unmet need for people to handle at least the early parts of the lifecycle around defining problems and requirements.
Thanks again for your great post. While the blog format (and time constraints) don’t often allow for as much background or on-the-ground perspectives as I’d like, I’ll try to keep your critique in mind and include more “how does this impact student achievement and educational practice?” sorts of information in my posts.
Best,
Chris
[…] read a very interesting critique of one of my articles the other day. A student at the University of British Columbia reviewed my “Top 10 Ed Tech predictions for 2011″ and concluded that the piece, a combination […]
[…] read a very interesting critique of one of my articles the other day. A student at the University of British Columbia reviewed my “Top 10 Ed Tech predictions for 2011″ and concluded that the piece, a combination […]
I agree with Chris about the blog format because we talked for a while about my predictions and he showed a deep understanding for how the learning conversation must come first. In regards to a needs assessment, I believe it is critical in the process of determining what problem the technologies can help to solve. We actually engage in visioning days with school districts to help them determine what they want learning to look like and then begin to figure out if technology is a good fit to help them achieve their vision. The best part about this process is that we involve students in the conversation and their voice is very powerful. Thanks for keeping the conversation alive.
AG
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
Adam Garry, 
bcourey 6:02 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hooray Allie!! This is exciting to have our discussions bounced across the cyberworld! As for the risks – I believe that this is part of the hesitation that many educators and school systems have when it comes to opening up blogs to the wider audience. In our board, we have a closed system for blogging to prevent access from outside and in some ways I think that really restricts the benefits of true blogging. Our job is to teach students how to post and respond appropriately and safely.
Deb Giesbrecht 6:18 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Way to go Allie!
That really is an acknowledgment and kudos; it really was a well written piece on both their parts. It appears that this site is educating more than just the students at UBC. I applaud anything that makes us stand up and take a second look….however, it is also a reminder that professionalism and decorum are necessary here.
ifeoma 7:51 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good timing David,
Allie really did a good piece there and of course the fall outs of public blogging, in this instance, to me it will mean an immersion in real life understanding of the pros and cons of topic at hand. It should all make for good learning.
Ifeoma
verenanz 9:40 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good work Allie! It is a great post. It is great to know that blogging can be such a great advertising feature- when done well.
It also a great reminder that this blog is a very public forum…:)
Verena:)
Juliana 9:01 pm on October 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Excellent work Allie! It looks like you have a good discussion going on your post!
I think this can be some of the benefits of blogging. You can draw other people into the conversation. Of course when you are dealing with students, this can also raise some security issues. This issue has already been touched on by many people in this week’s discussion and may need to be a consideration with blogging platforms of the future.
Juliana.
Allie 9:02 pm on October 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks all, and sorry for my really belated response – I had a really hectic week! It was really exciting to find that my post piqued the interest of the ZDnet blogger I had critiqued, and I was really grateful for his response and subsequent post. The experience certainly gave me confidence that even though I am very new to this field (this is my 2nd MET course), I nevertheless have genuinely good contributions to make. It has also led me to reconsider whether I should be more forthcoming with my online identity.