We have all heard that new technology demands a new pedagogy. If you have ever struggled to understand that please watch this video, and then read the book.
If you have children aged 7-17 you need to know this! If you are a teacher you should know this!
I have just finished an iBook outlining a whole lot of information that all parents should know before they allow children to use the Internet and/or an iDevice! The information in the iBook outlines information that I have shared at our 'Keeping Your Child/Teen Safe in the Online Jungle' evening for parents. The evening outlines a smorgasbord of information for parents to consider if they have children with devices or who use the Internet. The book is in it's first draft so please let me know if there are improvements I could make.
The iBook is about 40megs as it includes the videos I use on the evening so I have also put up a PDF version if you just want to look at it from any device but obviously does not have all the bells and whistles of an iBook.
Please use the information to share with your community but I am happy to do the presentation, it takes two hours to complete and includes everything in the book plus a hands on workshop to get parents into the device. My contact details are in the book.
So you have WIFI, a good Internet connection and are thinking that you are going to ask students to bring devices! After all every other school seems to be doing it.
BUT, what are the key considerations that need to be made when introducing devices into the school environment.
The are many MUSTS including good planning/purpose, solid infrastructure and importantly security and safety.
From what I can gather just about every school who has the Internet now has a huge hole in their Internet filtering and they do not even know it. I found out the hard way so you don't have to!
Try this. Go to http://www.google.com and search for something objectionable, that you would expect to be blocked, Let's say 'sex'. The result should be that the search is blocked.
Read more: CAUTION! Google broke through your filter, test it before your students do!
Recently some papers were distributed amongst some of the senior staff about the devices in education. One campus of the school has been very proactive in exploring and transforming the learning environment and has well and truly started that journey. The other campus has had it's issues with infrastructure, but that is another story...
Read more: Has the Internet destroyed our ability to think deeply?