Re-defining Technical Support

@achurches wrote an insightful post titled “One Size Fits All”. He writes about the barriers to teacher creativity due in part to lack of flexibility from school and district administration and a locking down of technology by technical support staff.
I agree.
But teachers need help in working with tech staff. Allanah commented on “One [...]

Can Pre-Built = Personal?

Personal Learning Environments are
a single user’s e-learning system that provides access to a variety of learning resources, and that may provide access to learners and teachers who use other PLEs.
(van Harmelen, 2006)

In a recent discussion with fellow grad students and Stephen Downes, Dan made what I thought was a brilliant comparison about two kinds [...]

Not Detached?

It was an article that made me sit up and take notice. The Faculty is Remote, but Not Detached was recently published in the New York Times. In fact, some of the faculty referenced in the article appear to have either taken a detached stand-and-deliver style to the Internet, or won’t move to [...]

Twits are (not?) for kids

I keep two blogs. My other blog Masterthoughts is where I chronicle my personal learning journey through my Master’s program, struggle through learning issues, and generally find my way. I appreciate feedback and discourse at Masterthoughts, although sometimes it is good enough to just get my thoughts on the virtual paper.
This blog is [...]

Teachers and New Tools

In a recent podcast for Educause, George Siemens suggested the best way to get faculty to use new tools was to have them experience the tools. He contends that it’s not the competence with the tools that distinguishes teachers from students, it’s the willingness to try the tools. For the teacher it is [...]

Free and Open Content

I want to consider a distinction between free open source software, and free and open content.  
Teemu Leinonen brings us this picture of the evolution of educational technology:    
Leinonen describes our current state as social software and free and open content. I think we confuse the issue be assuming that all social software is free open source software. [...]