Teacher laptops won’t change education (Via Moving at the Speed of Creativity.) Wesley Freyer: “As Dr. Alan Glenn, former dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington has said, “It’s philosophy, not technology, that will change your classroom.” We need teachers who embrace project based learning, authentic problem solving, and in-depth rather than in-breadth learning for students.”
That being said, a teacher who does embrace these philosophies can go a long way with new technologies, particularly free technologies… a teacher with a linux based networked computer of any kind can do Ed Tech 1.0 type projects with an office suite and the internet, and can also do Ed Tech 2.0 projects with blogs, wikis, RSS, and other free read/write web services. Now if only Linux were a better gaming platform… once there is a decent open source MMO creation application, then we’ll really be talking. Teachers and students will be able to create and distribute their own serious games and simulations (and some not so serious ones to boot I’m sure). That might be the beginning of Ed Tech 3.0.
I also think Wesley’s thought is closely related to Rob Wall’s thought I posted about earlier today.