MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-18 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] Alt schools demo
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> I think it would be a wise investment for the group to buy a laptop for
> demonstrations.
> Selso has a vendor for a used IBM Thinkpad PII 450 for $380
> Other offers suggestions are welcome.
I recommend to get a better one. My Viao, before it was manhandled, wa a formable
sales tool. You may not need to spend $2000, but you should have a very
sexy machine, as much as possible. This is not a practicle purchase, but a
marketing tool.
> That said I sitting through the rest of the day. There was not one demo
> for which we do not have a _better_ free software alternative.
>
If you analyze the conditions now for teachers, you will draw the conclusion
that this is not important...
> I was most suprised by the number of teachers who had found slash server
> like websites to host their classes.
And this is why...
Teachers have no idea what is effective or how to use technology in education.
The question we need to ask is who is going to provide this education for them..
Microsoft or NYLXS.
Once teachers understand what to do with them, this will dramatically change.
That is way th most important message to be drilling this audience is,
"technology in education is failing to make the grade" and here is why.
> The reliance on external companies, or web-service portals shocked me
> because the teachers are imputting their entire lesson plans through
> a web form and relying on the continued well being of a distant company
> offering a "free as in beer" service over the net, which seems to me to
> be an incredibly precarious way of running classes.
Why is it precarious? It's stupid to pay someone to do something every
teach should be able to do themselves...but I hardly can see it as precarious.
It's just an example of how a lack of training about technology has hindered
the use of technology in the classroom to an effective end point. These
companies are snakeoil salesmen.
> I think, now armed with more examples, having a better idea what types
> of problems the teachers are having, we need to find who is higher up,
> and get a rapid demonstration going.
It is more than that, and this would eventually fail under the marketing
weight of Apple and Microsoft. We need to get them to think in a revolutionary
and clinical way about end points of student education. The goal is to
educate children. Even the best slashdot server can not reach this goal.
We need to make vendors PROVE that their products actual educate students.
And we must do the same.
Ruben
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