187: On Advertisements in School Another overlooked aspect of IT use in schools is students’ exposure to advertisements. Many sources of online information used in schools, including mainstream media and journalism sites, the sites of professional organizations and edited periodicals, and especially social media sites (like YouTube) are funded by advertisements. When students access these Read More
This comes from Technology in Schools: Its Not Like this in Business, the book I recently released under a Creative Commons license. 212; Layers of Educational Technology When looking at information technology in schools, we can break it into five levels (see table 1). As one proceeds from “IT Systems” to “Students and Teachers Using Read More
One of the challenges for designing information technology for school populations is the broad range of skills that users bring to the device. When we build IT for business users, we can usually assume their skills fall within a narrow range. Consider the range of literacy and numeracy skills as well as the physical characteristics Read More
When framing a problem, we define what we believe its cause to be along with the conditions that will indicate the problem has been solved. When attempting to solve problems, we take actions to reduce its effects and to prevent it from returning. When working with IT in schools, it becomes obvious there are differences Read More
Technology is a force that exerts strong influences on society and culture. For those living within a culture its effects are so familiar they are barely perceived and thought to be a natural part of every culture or society. What we expect of people (our peers, our leaders, our children, etc.) and out institutions (schools Read More
This is part of the introduction to my book Technology in Schools: It’s Not Like This in Business which was recently released under CC-BG-NC-SA. “The technology systems installed in schools support all many educational and operational functions.. These are seriously complex systems. In the vocabulary of IT professionals, they are enterprise systems (or perhaps business Read More
I recently found my summary of an article that appeared in Scientific American in 2010 in which Tim Berners-Lee looks back at the world wide web 20 years after it was invented. The issues seem as relevant today as then. Universality– Because all content is based on the same protocols (hyper text markup language at Read More
A fictional story based on true events: Mrs. Smith was hired as a principal in a school enrolling student in grades 5-8. She started a Facebook group for the school and encouraged parents to join in it. The principal’s time on the job was contentious and, in many cases, drama arising from the Facebook group Read More
Computers intruded into the world of education starting in the 1970’s. Sure, “intrusion” may not be the appropriate verb, but the arrival of the devices meant educators, administrators, staff, and students were forced into new ways of teaching and learning and managing the institution’s operations. New infrastructure was added to buildings, new personnel had to Read More
IT professionals are familiar with system requirements, and they are comfortable helping to define them, exceed them in budgets and design specifications, test them, and confirm them. We write them when planning IT installation in schools as well. The reality, however, is that system requirements (the nature of the hardware, software, and connections) do not Read More