Disrupting Class (new book)

School is about to start and we will be off and running for another school year. Is it just me or do the summer seem to get shorter and shorter. The teachers are back and we are in the thick of getting are system preped and ready for another run till the end. I have just finished a new read. It is Disrupting Class, This is a great read. I so it on the shelf and thought to my self that sound like a bad book but as they say, "never judge a book by its cover." That is all so true as if most people judge me by how I look they would would think I am much diffrent then I really am and we will just leave it at that. This book is a book about educational Technology and how the author thinks it will change education system in the US and over the world. He ties his thought in to economics and buissness. He thinks that in just a few short years that we will move away from monolithic instruction mills as we have today and over the 50 or 60 years to student centered instruction. he also points out in this book that if we don't change the amount of educational time for learning for each student as they need it, and we try to get them all educated and the same rate that we will have variable results. If we want consitent results we must varie the amount of instructional time to meet each students need. this book is a must read for Technology and instructional people.

One to One Laptops are on the horizon

One to One Laptops are on the horizon
Well I was one of the most vocal Directors in the state of Michigan against the one to one Laptop program. The big reason I was so opposed to the One to One Laptops was the cost. They were delivering Laptops that were in the $1500 price range. There is no way on this green earth that we could afford to buy a laptop for every student in are school and to change them out ever four years. The cost would have been for are district of 900 students $1,350,000 every four years even if you leased them for four years it would cost the district $354,375 a year.
Now with this said I think we are very close to this paradigm shit with the release of several sub $300.00 Laptops and the Indian government saying they are working on getting a sub $100.00 laptop into the hands of every student. Let’s run these cost with the above student count assumption. 900 at a cost of$100.00 per student it would cost $90,000.00 to out right buy them and if you leased them for $22,500.00 for four years. that could be the factor that makes this program take off.