tech-savvy kindergarten

5:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
A New Hampshire Kindergarten teacher is using technology in her classroom. I think the way she uses it is very smart, and as she puts it, "Our kids are going to using these tools and sites anyway. Don't we want to educate students about them at school?" 

And as Antero Garcia, a L.A. teacher, added, "Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social-networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task."


1 on 1

5:18 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
While looking for information about MLTI, Maine's Learning Technology Initiative, I came across an interesting quote from Seymour Papert, former Governor King's technology go to guy. When asked about possibilities that reduce computer-to-student ratio to 3 to 1 Papert responded, 

"It's only when the ration is 1 to 1 that something powerful happens."

If it weren't for Seymour Papert, Governor King's vision may have been taken in a different direction. Who knows where Maine would be in this technology initiative.

Seat belts?

5:19 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
I just found a blog that opened a discussion about why school buses don't have seat belts, and she raised a good point. 

"Car seats and booster seats are required by law whenever you transport a child, in a car, under the age of eight and the weight of 80 pounds. Why then, are not even seat belts required on school buses that carry children as young as five for kindergarden, or in the case of special services and private preschools as young as three?"

I found this interesting, I only remember one school bus throughout my entire elementary experience with seat belts, and it was only in the front most row. To add on to the authors statement, the state of Maine has a required seat belt law, that every individual must be buckled, in addition to car seat/booster seat laws. If the law is effective for cars, trucks, and so forth shouldn't it also be effective for school buses?
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