I attended Social media Week‘s classroom of the future talk.  See my notes from the higher ed version or my notes on the K-12 version in this post.

Tools in physical classroom

• Twitter like tool (since twitter blocked at some scools) – back channel during class and after class
• Social media study groups
• Blog about what learning so understand it more
• Text – questions, announcements, ask someone outside school like parent to get outside perspectives. Let cell phones enhance learning and not be a distraction. There is a program that strips out phone number and saves history

Cool: showed live demo of interactive quiz to see comprehension

Be an early tester but a late adopter of technology. It needs to fit your work/life flow. “twitter is for old people”. When did that happen?

Computer acceptable use policy better than filtering because teaches responsibility. [hmm. Maps to coporate america]

Schools behind companies in terms of tech. And companies behind what you do at hone. Income divide. Not everyone has a cell phone. And the district doesn’t have ebough money to lend laptops. Same for connectivity. Not everything is on broadband. Schools making money advertising on billboards and lockers to pay for things like this.

When not everyone, has a phone, pair/triple up. she also can get laptops. [what happens when everyone is poor?]. In India, very poor people have a phone because it is a life changer. Don’t need a smartphone. Can learn by SMS.

We’ve been hearing about the disuption of the textbook market for years. Think will be delivered on tablets and the real question is how to get people to pay for them. Need to take advantage of tech and not just make paper look nicer. A textbook limits you to one point of view [or collates info]. Also allows making it better suited for ESL or kids reading below grade level. The White House announced last week that they will be pushing a guide/advice for digital textbooks.