As the people of the world are becoming increasingly connected, the nature, use, ownership, and purpose of knowledge are changing in profound ways. Our goal as educators is to leverage these connections and changes as powerful means to improve teaching and learning in our schools. Using digital media and web-based tools, students are building their own learning experiences, constructing meaning, and collaborating in teams to solve authentic content-based problems. Many teachers who use these empowering technologies are now discovering we can have rigor without sacrificing excitement. The secret: Focus on student passion and interest, not the machines and software.

Come listen as Sheryl stirs a sense of urgency for shifting classroom practice through her 21 steps for 21st Century educators and leaders. Sheryl invites you to discuss this (and other 21st Century teaching and learning topics) on her blog: http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com

The last several years have seen a proliferation of 1:1 laptop computing (or “technology immersion”) programs across the United States. Though rationales differ for the creation of such 1:1 computing programs, most program goals can be distilled to the following three reasons:

1. Promote equity of access (i.e. erase/lessen the Digital Divide)

2. Improve teaching and learning

3. Help students develop 21st century skills

Though there are no large, scale definitive longitudinal results from 1:1 laptop programs as of yet, this presentation will examine these results using three seminal US 1:1 laptop computing programs as case examples— a statewide 1:1 program (Maine Learning and Technology Initiative); a statewide pilot program (Texas Immersion Program); and a schoolwide laptop initiative (Project Hiller). Results, in light of the three goals mentioned above, will be discussed and couched within the larger context of general instructional technology use in the US will be examined. Time permitting, the discussion will focus on lessons learned from these three 1:1 programs that can inform future 1:1 programs.

What are we pretending not to know? Even knowing that the future aches for a new kind of learner, thinker, and problem-solver, all the dollars and time spent on tehno gadgets still have changed little more than pockets of classrooms for kids. Let’s seek higher ground for our visions and our results when implementing technology in our schools. Now is the time to gather up our passion, creativity, leadership courage, our collective wisdom and really commit to sustaining a legacy worthy of serving today’s students who will literally inherit the earth.