EDUsummIT 2011 Report: The Digital Divide

Did you know that there are now more mobile subscriptions in the developing countries than in the (so-called) developed countries? I didn’t either. That was  a fact pointed out to us by Dr Paul Resta, of the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Yet our appreciation of how such technologies can be used to support learning (both formal and informal) is still in its infancy.
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The school where students MUST have a mobile device

#edusum11 Mike Searson is the President of The School for Global Education & Innovation at Kean University in the USA. I met him in Paris the day before the EDUsummit 2011 conference which took place there. He headed up our small, intrepid band of social media folk.

Something Mike related really made me think.

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Discussion about the role of the ICT Co-ordinator

I recently posted a couple of articles that questioned whether the role of the ICT Co-ordinator was necessary. (See the links below if you missed those masterpieces.) Well, we had an online discussion (I’m not daft enough to make an appearance in real life on that sort of platform!), escaped relatively unscathed, and here is the result...
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The role of ICT Co-ordinator is unnecessary: discuss

OK, I admit it: I was being a bit of a devil’s advocate when I suggested that the role of ICT Co-ordinator is redundant, but consider this. In these hard times, how will you respond if your Headteacher calls you into her office one morning and says:

I need to make some serious budget cuts. What exactly do you do, why does it need to be done anyway, and why can’t I get an admin person on half your salary to do it instead?

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A conference, summer CPD and a UNESCO report

Here are three options for you to consider in order to give a boost to your professional development:

  • The forthcoming ISTE conference in Philadelphia.
  • A cornucopia of ideas for professional development over the summer break, in case all that relaxing gets you down.
  • A report from UNESCO on Learning, Innovation and ICT.

All this was published last week in Computers in Classrooms, the free e-newsletter for educational ICT professionals. Subscribe now (literally: right now) and you’ll stand a chance of winning a premium version of Xobni, a pretty good email management tool. I’m running the draw for that at 10 pm UK time today.

Read on for the details of those three resources.

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5 Reasons to contribute to consultations

The number of responses to consultations tends to be low. For example, the Royal Society in England has received 125 responses to its consultation on computing in schools. Admittedly this is a niche area, but it still seems pretty low to me, given the fact that there are over 17,000 primary schools in England and, especially, over 3,000 secondary schools which, one would assume, have a vested interest. I believe that the number of responses to Government consultations is higher, but still relatively small.

I think people are mistaken not to have their say in this type of situation, even though I can understand why they might not wish to do so.

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #18 Don’t ask questions

You’d think that giving people in your team the freedom to teach ICT how they like would be met, by them a least, with unbridled enthusiasm. You’d think that the best way to get on with your boss would be to offer no resistance to his latest idea, even if you secretly believe it is completely nuts. You’d think that not challenging your students when they proudly show you the results of their programming or desktop publishing efforts would be much better than the opposite, lest their (supposedly) fragile self-esteem be damaged.

You’d be wrong.

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Is More Too Much?

Terry’s article ’25 Ways to make yourself Unpopular – Too Much Information ‘starts by reminding us the phrase is often heard in a social setting when stories are being retold and get a little too near the knuckle for comfort. In terms of getting things done however, surely it is not possible to have ‘too much information’? The more you have, the easier the job will be – yes?
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An Open Source Schools conference

In “austerity Britain” schools are faced with a rather large challenge: how do they continue to provide a good ICT service, for teachers, administrators and, above all, pupils? One possible solution is open source software, and whilst I do not subscribe to the Shangri La-like vision of some of its exponents, I do think it’s an option that demands to be explored and considered carefully.
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Found on the web: 02/17/2011 (a.m.)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.