Back to the well ... (laptops on campus debate)

Well, one of our best blogging discussions this semester was about whether a school should/could require students to have a technology device, like a laptop. Rich Culatta on his blog made the point that there are many other mobile devices besides laptops. For example, PDAs. Many people already have them, and it wouldn't be too expensive for a school to buy a few more to check out to students. I've often wondered why PDAs aren't used a little more in schools. With all the money we fork out for computers, why not use some of that money to buy 20 PDAs? If you go to Palm's website, you'll find a wealth of ideas about how to use PDAs in education. I also saw a presentation at the SITE conference last year where they sent students on a virtual excavacation with PDAs. The PDAs acted as a map to tell students where to go, and then they collected data and entered the data in the PDAs and then made decisions about the data.

Anyway, I digress. Rich says he believes the real issue shouldn't be whether we should require a certain technology, but whether or not a certain technology would improve education. If it does, we should use it. In his words:

"This is another issue that may seem like a minor wording change, but I think it's an important paradigm shift. It's also a perfect example of the backwards thinking that we do so often in educational settings. Find the best way to teach [period]. If that requires mobile devices, then students will get them. If it requires a mechanical pencil, they will get them. If it requires a paintbrush, they will get them. To be cliché, cure the problem, don't just try to treat the solution. If the cure means that students will be walking around with Blackberry devices (which I think it may) then so be it."

I agree with Rich that we often "look beyond the mark" and don't realize what we're really all about as teachers: finding the best way to teach. But I think we also need to be sensitive to the students' situations. I may feel that a certain technology improves learning, but if it's too expensive for some of my students, then I disadvantage the poorer students. So I think it's a balance. The solution, I think, is an obvious one but one that is often overlooked: use the technology that students already have! For example, most students use instant messenger--in fact most of you said on the pre-class survey that you do. So why don't we find ways to use instant messenging in education? The students already have the technology, so let's use it. Another example is cell phones. Everybody has them! So why don't we find a way to use them for an educational purpose?

Some other examples of technologies that students probably already have or know how to use:
blogs (outside of Utah, blogs are popular, believe it or not)
digital cameras,
Word (there are tons of things you can do with Word besides just type a letter)

Examples of technologies that students may not know about, but are free so they could all have them if we wanted them to:
Drawing programs
Imovie
Online simulations and virtual tours
Transana, Anvil, and Annotape are free video-analysis programs

Okay, I can't think of any others because Matt Payne just missed the final kick and I'm now in mourning! :-(. So help me out! What technologies are already in the hands of students (or could be) that we could take advantage of?