Thing #7b

The Next Killer App by David Warlick on 2 Cents Worth caught my attention. He began the article by talking about how whenever we want to make changes in education the process is like a puzzle - you have to move one or two tiles before you can move that final tile into place. I see this so much more in the technology department when we are trying to upgrade or incorporate something new into the schools. There are so many campuses and so many computers - and so few of us - and everyone wants it RIGHT then. These take time and manpower and we also have other jobs that we have to do on top of whatever new is happening, and no one seems to realize the steps that must take place, including additional server power, teacher training, etc. Lots of tiles need to be moved when new technology is added.

David continued his article to discuss the growing trend of eportfolios for students and some of the advantages. Students could "carry" these with them to different schools, districts, and even states. They would be working platforms instead of just archives of student work and utilize all different aspects of technology, including web2.0 tools such as social networking and blogging. This would be a huge advantage to students as well as teachers. I think of all the new students I got when I was in the classroom and all I got were old report cards or test scores which did not really tell me a lot about that student. Eportfolios could be a great tool for everyone - but there are lots of puzzle pieces that need to be moved before this can be used effectively. What puzzle pieces do teachers see before this could be implemented?