Friday, February 15, 2008

Thinking about technology in schools

Check out this article about Teen Tech Week and school libraries. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6526727.html

Read the National Association of School Boards report on social networking mentioned in the article

and the Pew Studies on Teens and Technology

Does using technology mean that all teens are technologically literate? Or do we need them to go beyond the ability to use software and authoring tools? These are the national standards for information literacy from the American Association of School Librarians -- are we meeting those standards? http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

At least one study says that information literacy and technology literacy are not the same thing, and our students need more information literacy instruction. What do you think? http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2670/computer-literacy-doesnt-mean-information-literacy-report-says

What responsiblity do we have as teachers, parents, students, school board members? Should we be concerned that funding for technology in schools has been removed from the Federal Budget? http://www.nea.org/lac/funding/index.html Does every school have a trained teacher/librarian and an information literacy curriculum? Does every school have adequate funding for technology, and library materials, both books and databases? Does every school have policies that encourage students to use all available technology for education?

What do you think we should be doing, as a society?

Fortune Cookie

Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is the best.
Frank Zappa