Nesbitt points out these statistics about China leading the world in English speakers — that’s because they read books and study language. It (probably) has very little to do with how many laptop carts they have in their schools and their ability to make WoW educational.

I know we have to reach our “digital native” students, but not at the expense of paper and pencil. If I have a student that turns in a paper using TXTing slang, I shouldn’t allow it because that’s “how they do it nowadays.” (I realize this is an exaggeration of what the Edu 2.0 peeps are proposing, but I am trying to make a point.)

My other issue is (Boy oh boy I just spend 10 weeks and many discussion posts on this for an online grad course on 21st Century Teaching) students/teenagers AREN’T (all) blogging — at least blogging the way we know blogging (the whole edublog sphere, for instance). They are writing shallow and superficial diary entries about their day at school and what the current gossip is concerning Jenny and Johnny. I am sorry to be such a cynic here, but it’s true. I surveyed a few of my students with a range of ability levels for my grad course, and even the most advanced ones were not blogging about pressing matters of the world. My lower level students didn’t even game or get on the computer at home. When asked what they did in their free time they listed OUTDOOR activities. Imagine that. Natural light.

Whew! Thanks for getting me all fired up — I hadn’t seen this video. It’s been a while since I ranted about Did You Know – http://poeticallychallanged.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/web-20-has-ruined-the-next-generation/

Essentially I wrote that I grow tired of these ‘inspirational’ videos. Perhaps it is the nauseatingly sentimental background music, or the kitsch use of slogans and messages. They seem to state the same thing…. “The world is changing, students are changing, we need to change, we are rich, they are poor, and so on.”

But, there is one thing for sure. This video and others like it will all be dished out by presenters to fill out their sixty minute gig at the next conference. That really pisses me off. Hell no! I swore on the Internet!

I gotta go. My cat wants me.

Cheers, John

http://www.getrealscience.com/jhenderson/?p=72

I’m with you on this one. It just seems like another “false god” in education to me.

More seriously, it’s precisely my point that AVK12T does *not* address the human condition in NO (or in the US)– nor does any tech sectarian. Richest per capita, and still leading the world in child poverty in industrialized nations? Upgrading your district’s connection to T1 cable so your kids can “create something new digitally” just doesn’t seem like it ought to be an overarching priority, does it.

AVK12T advocates for the millions of students who beg, “Please let me think,” and whose teachers, each one made wholly from straw, reply, “No.”