I agree with David about the the training and pedagogical support of teachers. While on the NII, I tried to talk the other members into a series of scheduled professional development opportunities for teachers that would be national. We did evolve with the help of Linda Roberts some strategic places that were regional resources for teachers, but regional is often remote, though many of us took advantage of it.
The whole discussion about the way in which technology can work hinges on people using them with skill, I am sure everyone knows that I believe in teacher professional development on an ongoing basis, content specific, toys and stuff later, that is blogs, wikis and all of that. I believe that teachers have to get their pedagogy together. I write this from ASEC, I am at NASA Ames going in for a new set of information and ideas. While thinking about this I am also aware of Internet 2, the grid, and teragrid. I think it is a shame in our nation that the secretary of education seems to be clueless, about the digital divide and that even some of the members of congress have a problem understanding technology. ( tubes) When Al Gore was working with us in technology, he was a user of technology and understood it and the media never gave him credit for his work and interest and support. Also the office of technology assessment was zeroed out and now we depend on dedicated staff of Senators, and vendors and the good will of the senators who enter into the fray without much unbiased information. International people need to know that there are plenty of areas in the us where Navajo are sixty miles from the chapter house with a phone, and that rural in some places in California is 12 K... but why should the congress care about that? Do you think they have time for trivia like that? Sucking up syrup through a straw in the dead of a winter storm is much faster. The applications that are high speed take so long to load, that lots of people cannot use them, hence we do have in some areas of training DVD's and other ways to share information. The speech was made by Nicholas Negroponte. I just thought it would be interesting for people to know the views of various ed tech leaders for their own knowledge and information. Bonnie Bracey Sutton _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
