A particularly interesting session was delivered by Paul Hodgkinson and Philip Smith from Durham County Council. They were talking about the impact that the introduction of wireless PDAs had on learning and attitudes to learning in some of their schools. The showed a video of the children using the devices and this video had pupil, teacher, headteacher and parent voices talking about why they felt these technologies had a place in the classrooms and homes of today.
You can access the report that has been written about this via this link. I'm sure it will make for excellent reading particularly in view of the emphasis their seemed to be on re-engaging disaffected learners and building bridges between school and the home. One final thing that caught my eye was that teacher comment on children's work/performance was spoken and recorded through the on-board microphone and then bluetoothed (is that a verb?) to the pupils PDA.
...and one more final point. In the question and answer session one lady asked about the dangers of this wireless technology being used in school. One of the speakers said that as an industry they were very conscioius of this area nd were guided by the Stewart Report etc. I look forward to finding out more about this isue when Mike Repacholi of Rome University delivers his talk about this very issue.
Hi..just stopping by to say a Happy New Year...interesting post there, and i've bookmarked this blog too...keep up the good job ;)
Posted by: Rumah Sabul Tumpangan | January 19, 2008 at 02:01 PM