We're in a technology hurricane...

"We’re in a technological hurricane reshaping the workplace — and it just keeps doubling."

This quote is taken from an op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman (NYT, 1/11/14).  While the main points of the essay are not aimed squarely at education but rather the evolving workplace, I think there are several intriguing insights that impact high school education, especially a vocational school.  Check it out.






TIE2014

I had the pleasure of attending the Technology in Education 2014 conference at Holyoke Community College this past Tuesday.  The conference was sponsored by The Collaborative for Education Services and featured keynote speaker Yong Zhao along with a series of interesting workshops - flipping the classroom, using Khan Academy, Effective use of Social Media, using Google, and lots more.  As the presenters' materials become available, I'll share them.

Zhao's keynote was, not surprisingly, focused on the intersection of digital technology and education; more specifically, "why hasn't technology transformed education?"  And his answer, in a nutshell, is because teh application of technology has been directed toward the wrong goals - automating and streamlining the standard curriculum and standardized testing.  We still think of education as a factory and use technology to automate these processes.  The jobs & occupations of the future haven't even been imagined yet.  The real value of technology is the degree to which it serves as a tool to enable/support creativity and a gateway to provide more abundant & diverse access to global resources.

Hopefully, the conference organizers will post the video of the speech.