Ian Jukes

I went to an ADVIS technology meeting yesterday, Ian Jukes presented. He has a unique style to his presentations sort of cross between a Baptist preacher and a comedian. His message is the same one I hear from all of the big guns in the education tech world.

We (schools and teachers) are doing a great job preparing students for a job and life in 1956. In other words we are not keeping up with the rapid changes of the world. We continue to do things the way we always have, but students have changed quit a bit in the last 30 years -

Part of his shock and awe approach is to outline how quickly technology is advancing, he sites "Moore's Law" a well known theory that states computing power doubles every 18 months and the cost is reduced by 50%. This theory has proven to be more or less true for the last 40 years or so. If this pattern continues, and there is no reason to think that it will not, the implications are huge - computers or devices that are 100 of times faster then anything now for a fraction of the cost.

He went on to talk a little about nano technology and bio technology and some recent advances in both of these fields. All the while making the point - are schools ready? Are students going to be ready?

One other interesting topic that Ian presented was the concept of Exponential growth and how learning occurs this way - yet schools continue to provide a linear education.

Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica

How does the work get done?

Once we have all agreed that schools owe it to their students to engage them in different ways and shift to a more student centered classroom, what happens next? It takes so long to get "buy in" from all of the teachers, do we have to wait for everyone to be on board, or can we just start.

I really feel like I need to get the infrastructure up to speed to support the usage. Nobody should have to struggle with the equipment.