As an educator the following matters to me with regard to teaching children well:
- essential skill identification and development.
- engaging, student-centered, brain/body-friendly learning.
- meaningful, relevant process and content.
- accessible, inspiring learning tools and spaces.
When it comes to tech tools, I care about these attributes:
- efficient, easy to use, not klunky or cumbersome.
- engaging, inspiring, welcoming, and inviting.
- almost invisible, leaving most of the time and effort for vigorous, positive learning.
- unique, meeting a still unmet need, or meeting a need in a way that's more engaging, efficient, and effective.
Tech creators are everywhere trying to invent a tool that everyone will want or need, hoping to become the Steve Jobs of ed-tech. Yet the momentum of the ed-tech movement is so fast, changing with the blink of an eye, that it's difficult to pinpoint just what will be the most useful, desired tool for rapid, meaningful, beneficial learning.
To date, there are some tools that make a big difference. Some of the tools I use or hope to use in this regard are the following:
- Google Docs: This tool fosters collaboration, discussion, creation, and share in an efficient, timely, meaningful, and beneficial manner.
- Google Maps: Similar to docs this tools helps students to collaborate and create wonderful maps that tell a story, and change the way they and others think about, access, and interact with a particular geographical location.
- eBlogger and other blogging tools: This is a facile storytelling, share, and advertising space where people can reach out to others in order to question, lead, provoke, and create thought, action, and invention.
- SumDog and ThatQuiz: These are easy-to-access, easy-to-manipulate tools that make practicing math enjoyable, efficient, and effective. You don't work overtime to motivate children or teachers to use these tools, and the benefits are wonderful.
- KidPix: The creativity on KidPix is limitless as is the ease of use. There's not enough hours in the day to explore the multiple creativity, publishing, storytelling, and share that's possible with KidPix.
- iMovie: An amazing, limitless, movie making tool.
- YouTube, Quick as lightening, YouTube brings you where you want to go almost all the time allowing you to access quick snippets or lengthy movies to build your craft, share information, create a mood, relax, or challenge your thoughts.
- NING: a graphically pleasing, easy-to-use, versatile closed social media network that I wish was available for the under-13 set.
- Storify: This is an efficient, effective way to capture Twitter threads, streams, and chats.
- Google Presentation: Terrific tool for creating a collaborative presentation.
- SCRATCH: Great intro to programming with multiple applications and room for differentiation.
- Sketch-Up: Wonderful tool for 3-d design and exploration.
What's missing? What don't we have yet that we still need? That answer depends on what we really think is important to learn and develop--what does our world need? What will better the human condition and environment?
With quick thought, I desire the following:
- Opportunities that come to you. I love what Linked-In is doing by sending users lists of jobs they might be interested in. When I receive the list, I think, "Gee, I never thought of that, thanks for sending it my way." Groupon does a similar thing.
- Tools that truly break down the global gap in meaningful, forward moving ways. There are many tools that move us in this direction, but I've yet to find one that truly connects us with others with purpose, consistency, meaning, and result.
- Design tools that lead a child from dream to reality with regard to invention and creation--challenging, pushing, affirming, checking, and leading in ways that bring a child on a truly invigorating, passion-filled adventure to making positive change in their world and the world of others. Children have such wonderful vision for our world--imagine a tool that closed the gap between their dreams and reality, not a too-quick close or else the world might be more imaginary than we could handle.
- Tools that avail greater share, travel, exploration, and creation in real-time. I imagine those would be connection and resource getting tools that connect need with resource. Many initial tools exist in that regard.
- Smart Decision Making Tools: Tools such as Web MD decision making/assessment tools have wonderful potential for meaningful learning.
What tools matter to you? What do you desire that has not yet been invented? How do we invent and utilize tech tools well so that we impact life in real-time by building stronger communities, establishing more comprehensive care and support to children, the elderly and those in need, and maintaining and developing environments, both natural and man-made, that inspire the best in all of us.
It is such a wonderful time of creativity, promise, and possibility--so many avenues, and so little time. What will be your next step?
