2. What would you like to know?
Cell Phones Getting Push in Education, B ut Not Without
Resistance
Case S tudy: Palm B each County S chools Embrace Online
Teaching Tool
B allinger IS D S upports M acB ook Initiative with WiFi
Deployment
3. Cell Phones Getting Push in Education,
But Not Without Resistance
A ccording to Dave Nagel, cell phones are projected to get a
push in the Educational system.
M any professionals believe that cell phones or mobile
technology, particularly pertaining to web access, are the
future of education.
4. Cell Phones, Continued…
A t Trinity Meadows Intermediate S chool, 53 fifth graders
have been given smart phones that are to be used in their
lessons.
M any views of this research say that this is a great step
towards the future, a step that we have missed before in the
past.
Others, are not so optimistic.
5. Cell Phones, Response
S ome may call me old fashion, but I don’t think cell phones
are the way to go. Computers have been an amazing step in
education, and they are definitely a great tool in teaching
and getting the students engaged. However, to give a fifth
grade student a cell phone in the middle of class is foolish.
A child of 12 will only pay attention for a few short days
until he/ will get distracted and covertly communicate
she
with friends. Cell phones will become more of a distraction
than a aid.
6. Case Study: Palm Beach County Schools
Embrace Online Teaching Tool
“ Educators are using the solution’s customized features to
scaffold, save, and share digital content…”
In the article by B ridget McCrea, this means exactly what it
sounds; Teachers are able to access more than 300,000
digital resources that have been approved by expert
educators by a program called My Portfolio, the K -12 “ safe
search” tool, netTrekker d.i..
7. Case Study: Continued…
It is said that this new network is easy to use, in fact, easy
usage is one of its main goals.
These resources are monitored, regulated, and evaluated for
quality and academic relevance.
8. Case Study: Response
This, unlike my response to cell phone usage in school, is
very positive. I think this information sharing system will
be an awesome step for unified attempts at successful
education. Teachers will be able to use proven ideas from
other teachers and share a wealth of knowledge that doesn’t
have to be contained to one classroom, or even one
department. Teachers need to share what works with
others, and they need to be always expounding upon current
procedures, and I think this online teaching tool can do just
that.
9. Ballinger ISD Supports MacBook
Initiative with WiFi Deployment
This article describes a new initiative by B allinger
Independent S chool District in Texas with equipping every
student and teacher with a M acB ook and outfitting the
schools with a Wireless network.
They had to consider cost, upkeep, simplicity, and last but
not least, quality.
In the end they chose the Xirrus Wi-Fi for the
“ emPOWERing S tudents for the Future” initiative.
10. Ballinger ISD: Continued…
The Xirrus Wi-Fi requires less hardware and parts than
many of the other wireless networks available, so in the end
Xirrus saved them a lot of money.
Thus far, the system has been great and has experienced
failures since its inception.
11. Ballinger ISD: Response
This is a great idea for this school district. The only
problem is that I see MacB ooks as slight overkill for
elementary and even jr. high students. I feel that high
school students would benefit most from the computers and
the wireless network. Not only do I think they would
benefit, I think it would be a phenomenal tool for teaching
and learning. A s I said above however, only for high
schoolers.
12. Lets Sum Up
Overall, I feel technology is the direction our world is
taking. With our world heading in that direction, we need
to have our educational system up to speed if not beyond
the rest of the world. With that said, we need to be wise
about technology’s benefits verses its drawbacks. When
we let a fifth grader use a cell phone in the class room or
give an elementary student a M acB ook, we really have to
evaluate if we are spending all these dollars on truly
prospering education, or if we are mindlessly wasting our
money and our time.
