Spiro’s Sight

By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

Using Facebook!

Teachers do not have to be a student’s friend to be helpful, but being a Friend (on social network sites) is not automatically problematic or equivalent to trying to be a kids’ friend. When it comes to social network sites, teachers should not invade a student’s space. But if a student invites a teacher to be present, they should enter in as a teacher, as a mentor, as a guide.

Our school district is now trying to "develop recommendations for using social media effectively (and safely) with students and the community."

Here is one example: http://www.d128.org/itfiles/District%20128%20Expectations%20for%20Electronica...

empathy: "it is key, if not the key, to all human social interaction and morality."

In one sense, the reaction to the iPad is very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy. If you are a teacher, administrator or politician who sees the school's role as filling little empty buckets with prescribed information, the iPad is a potential fire hose. It CAN deliver content, and given Apple's control over the apps that run on the device, that content can be provided by a very select number of publishers.

But if your idea of an educated person is one who constructs knowledge, solves problems, and communicates effectively, this is not the tool for you - at least at the current time. Unlike a netbook, the iPad makes  creating, saving and sharing even simple written documents, let alone multi-media, nearly impossible.

Thanks to Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog. The most reasonable man in EdTech!