El got mig ple TV, I

Avui inaugurem "El got mig ple" a Sant Gervasai TV. En el marc d'aquest confinament que vull que sigui introspectiu, m'acostaré a persones de vocacions diverses per conèixer com veuen i viuen aquesta necessària transformació del món. 

Avui, com una clara carta d'intencions, arrenquem amb en Jordi Serra, prospectivista. Però no només conversarem sobre escenaris de futur. 

Doing More with Less (and Other Practical Educational Technology Tidbits)

Ha començat la funció! Aquest matí alguns mestres encara ultimaven detalls abans de l'arribada dels alumnes. Algú m'ha comentat que, malgrat gairebé vint anys de docència, encara li costava de dormir la nit abans de l'inici del curs, i ho deia amb la mirada il·lusionada de qui ha fet d'aquesta professió part essencial de la seva vida: una bona mestra. La presència dels alumnes amplifica encara més totes aquestes sensacions. Les seves ànsies, la curiositat per la nova situació que és el nou curs, potser la nova etapa, els retrobaments... L'escola s'omple de vida!

L'Adam Bellow s'ho pren amb una certa calma i sap que, si bé no hi ha cap curs igual a un altre, sí que podem adoptar, davant les realitats canviants, actituds personalment i professionalment equilibrades i raonables. I és que davant el brogit i la incertesa de res no serveix excitar-se massa. Només cal una dosi del mal anomenat sentit comú.

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Adam Bellow (@adambellow on Twitter) works as the Director of Educational Technology for the College Board Schools where he works with educational leaders, teachers, and students to infuse technology successfully in the classroom. In 2011, he was recognized as Outstanding Young Educator of the Year by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education).

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Another year of school is upon us. My son, who just turned three, just started his first school. He excitedly talks about it, plays pretend school with his Superman and Thomas the Train toys, and loves to carry his new backpack around our house. Watching his eagerness, I hope that, in some way, we all feel that way about this new school year.

And why not be excited? We teach in amazing times. Just think about the technology that you carry around in your pocket or the things you are able to do on the Internet. Technology makes meaningful collaborative and engaging interactive classroom experiences possible with minimal effort.

However, sometimes we need some help getting started. This list of ideas is far from complete and will hopefully serve as a starting place for some conversations in your school or district. Please feel free to share any of your ideas in the comments section below.

1. Start Small

Oftentimes new initiatives, whether they be related to educational technology, incorporating a new program for math, or even something as simple as a new district policy regarding attendance, these can all throw us for a loop. It's great when new ideas and initiatives work right away, but if they don't there are two choices -- adapt or ignore. And ignoring is no longer an option.

We need to embrace and try these new initiatives, while realizing that it's okay to fail. (I know this is Edutopia and all -- but Yoda was wrong in this case. There is such a thing as "try.") Failure is how we learn. In fact, it is sometimes refreshing to fail at something and face the challenge of getting it to work out.

But in school, where there are often a multitude of constraints and demands on the teacher, their students, and the time that they have - it is difficult to try, not succeed, and then take the chance to try again in the hopes of an alternate result.

My Advice

• Try one new thing a week. That way you don't get overwhelmed, and yet your year will be filled with around 40 new attempts at something new and fresh. This can be as simple as trying to use a new web tool with your students or even just committing to using technology to help you do something better in your life as a professional.
• Try one new thing at a time. Often we pack too much into a lesson. If you find ten websites you want to share with the students, consider putting nine of them on a "Explore More" sheet that they can look at when they have time or as an extension of learning (my definition of "homework"). This way you can really take time to delve into a resource appropriately and not be watching the clock as you try to toss too much into the mix. The technology is not a list of ingredients thrown onto a lesson, but rather something that you should have kneaded and baked into the pedagogy.

2. Collaboration Is the 21st Century Skill

I personally think that learning to work with other people and sharing information appropriately is the most important skill we can be building with students (and educators) today. I'm not talking about "Group Work," at least not the artificial group work that I remember from my days in school. I am talking about a more organic collaboration between students. They don't need to be in the same class, grade, or even the same school. By connecting online, there are literally millions of other people who can help you and/or benefit from your work. Oftentimes I get ideas from social media about great class projects; it is a wonderful place to learn and to share your ideas, successes, and failures.

My Advice

• Use free tools. There are a host of free web tools that come in handy for collaboration including Skype and Google Docs, Popplet and Today's Meet.
• Find new ways to collaborate. I like to ask students to collaborate with someone they don't know. There are lots of sites set up out there where teachers can connect with other teachers and partner their students up on these types of interactive platforms. I think that while it is truly great for the students to collaborate we should be doing it too! 
  Social media platforms like Twitter and Google+ have made it incredibly easy to build a powerful network of like-minded passionate individuals that you can both share ideas with. It is vitally important that we stay life-long learners and remain open to new ideas and technologies as they can help us be better at our jobs.

3. Training Is Key

Technology in the classroom brings out interesting things in teachers. Some, like myself (and likely you as well), are eager to learn and do more because the technology and what it can do interests us. Others aren't quite sure what to do, but would be willing to learn if given some help. And of course, some people sadly write off technology as being a chore or a passing fad.

One way to ensure that technology is used properly in the classroom is to make it clear how to do so. Training needs to be quality and continuous. Schools need to make it a priority to help educators use the "stuff" that they buy for the schools.

But these ideas involve time dedicated from the school and teachers - sometimes this is not so easy to come by. I recommend a grass-roots approach. Tech Tips are short Emails that I have been sending around at my job for the past four years. Short Emails explaining what a tool, resource, or website does and why it might be useful to the reader. These Emails don't take terribly long to write, but are oftentimes seen as very helpful. If you start the chain and get a few people on board you will probably have a fun sharing circle in no time.

My Advice

• Look outside your school as some great PD that is free and easy to come by. There are some wonderful un-conferences that focus on educational technology throughout the country, including EduCon or EdCamp. But the Internet is one of the best places to seek advice, ideas, etc. Using YouTube videos and tutorials as well as Twitter, you can connect with other educators and learn just about anything. These are also two great platforms to share on.
• Suggest that each faculty meeting include a tech-share. Allow teachers to explain their hits and misses using technology in the classroom.
• Make sure that training is more constant. When new hardware is put into a classroom or school, the training needs to occur more than just a one-off when the "stuff" gets set-up. The teacher needs support to learn how to best use the new tools with their curriculum.

4. Go Mobile

Technology -- the "stuff" part of it -- has come a long way. Where we used to be able to only access the Internet through a giant tower machine with a clunky monitor, we can now get online from almost any modern device -- anything from a smartphone to an iPad.

As a result, the days of computer labs are over. Indeed, they are a waste of space in a modern-day school. Why make it so that to use technology as a part of a lesson teachers would have to leave their classrooms just to use it? Any investment a school makes in technology should be something that can be used in multiple settings for multiple purposes by multiple sets of students.

My Advice

• Make the case for mobile technology The incredible truth in some cases people making decisions about what to acquire for the school that you are working with may not be familiar or comfortable with some of the newest technology. 
  While schools always should exercise a modicum of caution when evaluating new tech, it seems that all too often they go with what is easiest, cheapest, or what they themselves are most comfortable with. Show the decision-makers what you want and explain why it is the best solution out there. If it is an iPad cart that you want to use with your class - don't just ask for one; make a case as to why your classroom would be a better place if you had it in there.
• Fundraise creatively. Sometimes the money really is an issue and the school won't underwrite a tech initiative, even if it is a valid one. Grants and donation sites are a great place ot post any projects you are working on or towards. DonorsChoose.org andDIgitialWish.com are two excellent websites for teachers to propose a project that they are working on and ask for some money to help them do acquire the necessary school products.

5. High Tech on a Low Budget

Educational technology should no longer be synonymous with large expenditures of money for software and hardware. Schools can do a great deal with very little. With Web access, students and teachers have access to thousands of free web resources that can provide countless enhanced learning experiences as well as ways for students to create a swath of creative content. Take for example the site SumoPaint.com, it is a robust image editor which looks almost identical to PhotoShop. The difference is that SumoPaint is free to use and can be accessed from anyone -- one of the key benefits of using web-based tools as they work is not machine or platform dependent.

My Advice

• Use Twitter This piggy-backs a little of some past advice, but Twitter is one of the best places to learn about these new free web tools quickly and efficiently. In addition there are lots of great sites out there that are dedicated to finding and sharing free web tools with the user. eduTecher.net, the site that I run is one of these places where you can go and quickly search for or stumble upon a great new tool to use in your classroom.

6. Rethink Who Should Be at the Table

Oftentimes when school policy and visions are planned there seems to be a major disconnect between the administration (usually the ones making or voting on the policy) and the rest of the school (the teachers and students whom the decisions affect).

My Advice

• Invite all stakeholders to the table to provide input as well as understand the various sides of the issues being decided.
• Create a small representative committee of students who can be at some stages of the decision-making process. Parents are also an important piece of the puzzle that often gets neglected in school policy. All people have voices and it is important to let parents and students express their opinions, desires, and concerns. The best answers sometimes come from the least expected places.

We really do teach in a remarkable time. Each day you walk into your school setting, whether it be a classroom, office, or somewhere else -- remember that you help to shape the future and what you do during the day can change the world!

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Text extret de: http://www.edutopia.org

How the games can change the world

A Edutopia (una vegada més...) em retrobo amb el món ric i visionari de la Jane McGonigal, a qui molts vam tenir la sort de poder escoltar el novembre del 2009 al V Congreso Internacional de Educared. No hauríem de mostrar-nos només molt atents a les seves propostes; ja hauríem d'estar prenent la iniciativa, perquè els models que proposa obren una infinitat de camins.

Text de Suzie Boss

At the recent U.S. finals of the Imagine Cup competition, student teams from across the country showed off not only their technical brilliance but also an eagerness to improve the world through gaming and software development. How so? How about using a portable device to help visually impaired students with note-taking, or a digital strategy game that challenges children to improve the environment through clean energy, or a game for your smart phone in which players fight deforestation to earn points.

Gamer guru Jane McGonigal, who was keynoter 

for the event. 

Credit: Imagine Cup

Those three winning projects were selected from a pool that started with 74,000 entrants from high school through graduate school. That’s a new record for the Microsoft-sponsored event, now in its ninth year. Theme for this year’s event: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. That means projects have to use technology to address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals which include reducing poverty and hunger, improving access to education, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

“This age group -- the Millennials -- seems to put a higher value on being of service to a larger cause than previous generations,” says Jane McGonigal, celebrated game designer who was keynoter for the Imagine Cup awards ceremony on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. “Combine that with their interest in technology and love of gaming, and it seems like a powerful one-two punch that will escalate the quality of serious projects.”

Serious Fun

Although global problems are plenty serious, the solutions emerging from this crowd tend to be playful and optimistic. Imagine Cup projects don’t have the same feel as many of the games that are marketed as “educational,” and which tend to put learning goals before good game mechanics. “A lot of (educational) games lack fun,” one team frankly told the judging panel. Their approach instead was to emphasize “learning by accident.” The team from Tribeca Flashpoint Academy that developed the award-winning environmental game (called Spero, Latin for “hope”) did user testing with third- and sixth-graders. They found that a full-on gaming experience -- with all the challenges, visual feedback, and fun that gamers expect -- also leads to learning. Once the game got kids engaged, the team told judges, “they wanted nothing less than to save the world.”

That approach gets a nod from McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Overall, she says she found the caliber of entries at Imagine Cup “very impressive. These games are fully playable, very polished, very much real games. None look or feel like games designed just to teach you something. Obviously,” she adds, “they were designed by young people who’ve grown up gaming.”

In her own approach to game design, McGonigal adds, “I like to think of every game as a solution to a problem. I want to make a game that changes how somebody thinks so it will change how they act, vote, or engage with the world around them. To focus on impact and not just content is the big innovation we’re seeing now in game design."

Insights for the Classroom

During a showcase event, I had a chance to talk with several teams about their projects. Their insights offer good advice for anyone engaged in problem solving, teamwork, idea generation -- in other words, for anyone doing project-based learning. Here are a few nuggets of advice:

Do something real: The idea behind NoteTaker, the prize-winning entry in the software design category, started with a real problem. David Hayden, a visually impaired student at Arizona State University, was having trouble keeping up in his advanced math courses. He understood the concepts but struggled to see the board where the professor was writing problems. So he stopped by the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing, better known asCUbiC, and asked for help. “I told him, how about we give you a desk and help you work on a solution?” recalls John Black, who teaches in the School of Computing and Informatics. “Eventually, a team formed around him.”

The first team members -- from computer science and engineering -- used readily available materials, such as camcorder and tablet computer, to devise a prototype that would meet Hayden’s needs. Eventually, an industrial design student joined the team “and designed something that looks like a real product, not something a bunch of engineers would put together,” says team member Michael Astrauskas. Hayden, who began getting A’s in advanced math classes as soon as he had a working prototype, is now a graduate student in computer science. “We have 100 volunteers waiting to test this product,” adds Astrauskas, “and a third of them have no visual impairment.”

Be passionate: Designing innovative, potentially world-changing projects takes persistence. “You have to have passion for what you’re doing,” says a student whose team has developed a mobile app to help community health workers improve patient care in the developing world. “It’s not the idea that’s hard -- it’s the execution,” he adds.

Think globally: Wilson To, a student at University of California at Davis and also a Gates Millennium Scholar, was on the team that won the U.S. finals of the Imagine Cup last year and went to Poland to compete in the international competition.

Learning about the issues that students from other countries were tackling “opened my eyes,” he says. “This year, I wanted to work on a global issue.” He recruited team members with diverse backgrounds to develop LifeLens, software that uses a mobile phone camera to diagnose malaria in the field. It can be combined with mapping software to generate real-time maps of malaria outbreaks, which could make response more efficient and effective.

Focus on the positive: The youngest competitors at the event were two students from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. Xander Masotto and Julius Lee developed a strategy game called Strain that challenges players to defend the world against a global pandemic. Their idea came from other games that unleash pandemics on virtual worlds. “We thought, what if the goal was to save people instead of killing them?” Masotto says, explaining how they decided to put a positive spin on the issue of global health.

Their project involved extensive research into everything from pandemics to world geography, not to mention programming and graphic design. It all took place outside regular school hours. They’d welcome a move to bring game design into the classroom as a springboard for active learning.

The final round of the Imagine Cup takes place in July in New York, when competitors from around the world will compete for prizes -- and a chance to introduce their world-changing ideas to a global audience. You can read more about their projects here.

How are your students using technology to improve the world? Please share your stories.

Anècdota i categoria a la tribu mutant

En els darrers anys està circulant i creixent el discurs que avisa d'una transformació generacional provocada per les diferències actuals (respecte generacions anteriors)  en els processos tecnològics aplicats al treball, al lleure, a l'aprenentatge... a la vida. A l’ala extrema del discurs hi ha qui apunta que aquestes tranformacions es concretaran en modificacions de l’estructura cerebral dels joves, gairebé com si d’una terrible mutació evolutiva es tractés. Ocult sota d'aquest discurs que per norma general és més de tipus catastrofista, en trobem un altre de molt més profund (i que ara no resoldrem) sobre com l’ús de l'eina provoca transformacions neuronals (i fins i tot fisiològiques). La neurociència actual ja té ben clar que no només la tecnologia modifica la ment. Sembla ser que la plasticitat cerebral permet que la ment es modifiqui dia a dia a causa d’una infinitat de factors externs i interns. No només la tecnologia ens muta!

   © David Cos 2011

Fa dos milions i mig d'anys, quan els humans vam trobar les maneres de tallar el sílex a cops de pedra, vam obrir una gran porta a la supervivència de l'espècie. Guanyàvem seguretat perquè érem capaços de relacionar-nos amb el món d'una altra manera. Aquest gran avenç va afavorir el desenvolupament d’habilitats inimaginades fins aleshores i que acabéssim pensant i actuant com mai no havia estat vist. Les grans innovacions tecnològiques han modificat substancialment les formes de vida. Són aquests canvis en les circumstàncies el que ens farà arribar a metamorfosis molt més profundes de la nostra manera de pensar i de relacionar-nos amb l’entorn. Estic segur que alguns avis de la tribu, en veure els joves caçadors tallar la carn amb les noves eines de tall de sílex, havien de trobar-hi alguna pega i tendien a recordar els perills a què aquella gran comoditat ens abocaria. Som humans.

Existeix la por que els joves perdin la seva capacitat de concentració. A alguns els alarma la seva capacitat d’estar per dues, tres o més coses alhora sense atendre en profunditat cap d’elles. Altres ho troben admirable. I en base a això es crea un debat absurd. D’aquesta mena de debats n’hem tingut uns quants al llarg de les darreres dècades. Tots recordarem als anys 80 el debat walkman sí per estudiar o walkman no. Continua viu: mp3 sí versus mp3 no. Encara uns anys abans, entre els docents també s’havia obert la discussió, amb moltíssimes variants, sobre si calculadora sí o calculadora no. Ara en tenim altres d’encara pitjors: consola de videojocs sí, consola no; xarxes socials sí o no…

Tots aquests debats em semblen d’allò més i més absurd i trobo que són una molt bona pèrdua de temps entre docents i també entre pares… No m’amoïna el debat en sí, sinó la cortina de fum que aquests debats estenen sobre les veritables necessitats de l’educació tant per part dels docents com de les famílies.

Aquestes necessitats, malgrat tots els avenços tecnològics que hi pugui haver, no són noves. La formació de nens i joves requereix el mateix criteri que requeria a la Grècia antiga. El que passa és que sovint confonem l’anècdota amb la categoria i ens quedem encallats en allò que realment té poca importància, ancorats a tòpics i pors.

Si creiem que els nostres fills/alumnes no gaudeixen de prou capacitat de concentració, el primer que hem de fer és trobar les maneres de corregir aquesta mancança. Mira que n’hi ha, de maneres; només és qüestió de posar-s’hi i de ser constant. Si trobem altres deficiències en els seus hàbits de raonament, de comportament, d’estudi i aprenentatge, relacionals, etc, posem-nos-hi, que segurament podrem dur a terme estratègies per millorar tots aquests aspectes. Però culpabilitzar, i per tant rebutjar les videoconsoles, els mp3, les xarxes socials i les calculadores per resoldre problemes és estar molt encallat i barrejar coses que no hi tenen res a veure.

No siguem els vells xarucs de la tribu i aprenguem que les eines són només això. Traguem-ne profit!

STEM education

A Edutopia trobo aquest article de Thom Markham que em fa pensar, una vegada més, en com és de petit l'univers quan parlem de les deficiències i les necessitats històriques dels diversos sistemes educatius. El fet, lluny de fer-nos sentir còmodes per la universalitat del problema, ens ha d'esperonar a treballar plegats (en el sentit més internacional que pugui assolir el terme) per traçar el camí. Ja tenim molts visionaris i moltíssimes visions; crec que el que ens segueix mancant són caps d'expedició atrevits.

A casa nostra tenim escoles que subscrivim l'esperit STEM. A aquestes escoles, com trobareu a l'article, se'ns estan plantejant reptes imprescindibles d'encarar si volem ser fidels a allò que ha de ser l'STEM del nostre segle.


STEM education -- the focus on science, technology, engineering, and math -- has become the choice du jour for educational reform and was prominently mentioned in President Obama's State of the Union address earlier this year. I've worked with several very successful STEM schools, so I like the trend. But I also see a tendency to regard STEM as 'just another thing we do,' instead of seizing the opportunity to further develop 21st century learning principles. Here are some of the pitfalls I've encountered...

Late last spring I was asked to conduct a PBL workshop for teachers in a district that trumpeted STEM principles. But their definition of STEM? Every high school in the District had adopted an extra math course.

In another case, I arrived at a newly minted STEM Academy three days before the academy opened. The teachers were meeting for the first time -- and had no idea of how to proceed, except they knew they would teach physics to 9th graders.

In a third instance, the school hadn't bothered to change the curriculum or teaching styles at all. But henceforth, they would call themselves a STEM school.

Most people don't know the history of STEM education. The term was first coined in the 1890's by the Committee of Ten at Harvard, as a response to the gaps in the agrarian school system of the 1800's. STEM described the attributes of a good industrial school system that would raise the standards of excellence for modern students.

To realize the potential of STEM education in the modern era, I think we'll need deeper thinking than has been evident so far. Here's the primary problem from my perspective: Succeeding with STEM education in the 21st century requires systemic change at a scale far larger than the Harvard professors had to envision 110 years ago. Without adopting inquiry-based, student-centered, skill-driven approaches to teaching and learning -- all nested in a system that values innovation -- STEM education will become just another term for additional math and engineering courses.

How to do this? I found the ideas below can work…

Teach knowing and doing. Simply adding Advanced Calculus or a Design Media course isn't enough. Engineers build and design things, using applied math. Scientists work through repeated failures in the process of successfully discovering a new drug. At the heart of any STEM program should be courses in which students create products, not just take tests. Those products should be exhibited to their peers, teachers, parents, and adult experts. This step requires smart scheduling, presentation space, invitations, practice time for public speaking, and -- more than anything -- attention to the design process. For example, every STEM program I've worked with gets better results by using the cycle of inquiry to stress continual reflection and refinement of the product. This requires an intentional assessment tool like a design rubric or reflection form that is graded.

Allow for creativity. STEM education is equated with innovation. But solid STEM education bumps up against other staples of the school system, such as AP requirements or pacing guides, that do not reward or support innovation. Success here might require rewriting the names of courses, working closely with curriculum coordinators to assure them that academic rigor is maintained, or adding courses to the STEM sequence that are not tied to end of course exams or standardized tests. But what really works? Think STEAM, not STEM. Incorporate a creativity rubric into your project. Use a rubric that has a 'breakthrough' category. This category is open-ended and encourages students to think outside the box.

Make teamwork central. Scientists and engineers work in teams, so emphasizing teams -- and training teachers and students in how to make teams successful in the classroom -- is essential to great STEM education. To move from old notions of group work or cooperative learning into real teams, use a team collaboration and work ethic to help students identify the exact tasks associated with 21st century teamwork.

Start with questions. Any important endeavor in science, engineering, or technology starts with a question. How do we create this product? What are the best design specs? What does the consumer want? An engaging, rigorous STEM curriculum emphasizes questions, not rote learning, lectures, or regurgitating known information. A STEM program can teach facts and information -- these are essential to young people. But make sure that students are constantly challenged by interesting, meaningful questions -- with potential answers that matter to the world.

Thom Markham, Ph.D., President of GlobalRedesigns, and Senior National Faculty member at the Buck Institute for Education, is a psychologist and educator who served as a Director with Active Learning, Inc., an innovative motivational and learning skills camp program for high school and college students, taught at an award-winning high school, where he led school reform efforts and developed a highly-acclaimed internship-based program, and co-founded the Marin School of Arts and Technology, an innovative charter high school in Novato, California.


Per saber-ne més:

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-nasa-technology-video

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/science-technology-engineering-mathematics-education

http://www.edutopia.org/spiralnotebook/eric-brunsell

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-buck-thom-markham

Ens hi posem d'una vegada?

Via: Voxy Blog

Why Mobile Is a Must

We need a new educational model that makes learning personal and motivating, and helps secure our students’ future in the knowledge economy. Mobile technology opens the door to it.

• By Mary McCaffrey

Imagine a group of kids working together on a retrospective of the Civil War. One student is at the public library, going through microfilm of newspaper articles from 1861 to 1865. She finds a reference to the political ramifications of a certain battle--notably, a picture of an influential officer. The student then uses her smartphone to snap a picture of the microfilm screen and sends the picture and caption to her group for additional research.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE This commentary launches a new column in THE Journal offering an industry expert's view on a topic of vital interest to the ed tech community.

Meanwhile, a second member of the group is reviewing gravesites and comes across some ambiguous headstones. He takes out his tablet computer and, after a quick bit of online research, locates the appropriate person. While all of this is happening, yet another student is conducting a face-to-face interview with a relative of a Civil War veteran. Rather than hastily throwing together handwritten notes, this student is using his MP3 player to record the conversation. Later, he'll upload it to the group's Web-based project space for the other team members to hear.

What makes these authentic, intimate learning opportunities possible? Mobile technologies. Mobile devices provide the platform and, as importantly, the incentive for students to take personal ownership of the learning experience. The lessons absorbed form deep connections for students and add to their cognitive framework in ways that no lecture ever could.

A Desktop in Your PocketToday's mobile technologies bear little resemblance, functionally or physically, to first-generation cell phones. They include a broad array of devices such as music and video players, cell phones, smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, all with access to cellular carrier networks, WiFi, or both. And while features and performance continue to climb, prices regularly drop, making mobile devices virtually ubiquitous.

The potential enormity of this user base has attracted software developers large and small. Nearly every available mobile device supports third-party application development, providing a rich selection of productivity, entertainment, and education applications, along with core functionality such as instant messaging, e-mail, calendar, and Web browsing. And advances in processor performance, storage, cameras, and sound have all contributed to providing users the same rich media experience they've come to expect from desktop systems. The integration of QWERTY keyboards is making obsolete the days of pecking out text messages using a numeric keypad. Also common are large, high-resolution displays that offer onscreen keyboards, multitouch gestures, and the ability to clearly view the screen both indoors and out. All of this combines to create the equivalent of a pocket desktop, in a portable, always-connected form factor.

So what is all of this doing for K-12 education? Nothing short of disrupting and transforming the established teaching and learning paradigm. To start, mobile technology is helping to solve the two challenges facing education today: students' desire to learn differently, and students' need to learn differently.

Kids today are captivated by the personalization and socialization of online tools--the ability to build large networks of friends; share their thoughts, feelings, and goals; and communicate as they wish. Students have become so invested in mobile devices that our society has coined a new term for them--digital natives--to represent their having only known a world where all of this is possible. And not only is it possible, it's possible anytime and anywhere, via a plethora of devices and widely available cellular and WiFi networks.

The upshot is, these digital natives now have in their hands the tools to shape their own education in once unimagined ways. They have the ability to interact with other learners at their convenience, with differences in time and place presenting no hurdle. They can research, on the spot, any topic of interest. And they can capture the moment, whether it's in a picture, a video, or a blog entry.