It is a pleasure and an honor to be with you at your annual leadership conference, and I’m thrilled to be back in sunny Portland. I’ve not had the chance to spend any time here, and I’m hoping for a walk or two before I have to fly back to North Carolina.
Those who meet me and hear me speak, read my blog, or my books, naturally think of me as an education technologist, and evangelist for tech-infused education. It’s been my arena for about thirty years, but even now, it remains a hard sell and for very good reasons. Tech is not a goal. It’s not a solution. Technology is nothing, at least in the same way that pencil and paper has been nothing when thinking about education in broad strokes.
What’s changed, what has truly impacted on our jobs as educators it not the advancement of technology. It how technology advancement has change the nature of information.
When I was in school we learned with books that had words stamped on pages, and communicated by scratching graphite on paper. It was an information landscape that made us mere consumers of content.
Today information has changed in what it looks like, what we look at to view it, how we find it, where we go to find it, what we can do with it and how we communicate it. Information is networked, digital and abundant, and these are three qualities that are entirely new. The disrupt our notions of being literate. It’s forcing us to expand our definition of literacy, and this is the sell – in my opinion.
We don’t invest in tech so our children will be technology-savvy. We invest in tech so that they can be information savvy and learning-literate.
Here are handouts for my breakout and keynote address:
- Personal Learning Networks – http://goo.gl/3KtVMC
- Literacy & Learning – http://goo.gl/2U1jfu
Backchannel Transcript – http://goo.gl/5fUex3
Posted with Blogsy from my iPad
I had genuinely hoped to spend some time wondering around Portland, I've heard so much about the city. Alas, it was raining (surprise) and I didn't have my camera with me, which does more to get me out of my hotel room. I was struck by the sign at the airport directing arrivals to an area where they can assemble their bicycles to the rest of the trip home. Wonderful!Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.5
