I could just celebrate the last day of summer classes but it would be more appropriate to talk about our class today. I enjoyed the conversation with Kevin, Lauren and Daver. It was good to see the product of the MAC program. They were impressive as far as dedication and thoughtfulness and I presume effectiveness. It was good and sobering to hear about the various ways of using technology and how effective it can be. I think what I took from that conversation was there is a good deal of room for creativity and initiative. Part of what they said did not surprise me. Many opportunities to apply technology to education are probably missed because of reliance on the local (well meaning and probably over-worked) experts in the schools who can't keep up with everything. The initiative and persistence of the classroom personal is needed to take advantage of technology. In some ways this is comforting and in others disappointing. It is comforting because creativity is released through the vision and persistence at the individual level. Often the management types are a couple of steps behind. (That is not intended as a criticism but it often how large organizations work). I am sure that the place of the most innovative use of technology in classrooms is from individual teachers who catch a vision and have the drive to bring things about. Now, I am not one of those people who innovate. But I am usually pretty good at recognizing, supporting and cribbing from those who do (with their permission of course). Seeing that there is room for that gives me hope. I do think using technology in support of learning is very important.

The lack of imagination is disappointing as well. Institutions often lag behind developments in society. But this pattern is so common that I would think we would catch on by now. Technology is one important tool for engaging the digital generation. (The video we saw about that was over the top but sometimes people stretch a point to make a point). Even though I thought that video was a bit much, I do agree that this is an area to be taken very seriously. We cannot legislate it away. We cannot ignore it. Engaging it openly and honestly is important so that we take advantage of the good things technology is and learn to use it at the service of learning. (That Internet thing is simply not going to run it course and go away).

The side discussion I wanted to have was about the teacher union issue. I would like to know what people think about the need for unions among professionals. If there is a need does it mean that we really haven asserted ourselves as professionals? Or does it mean that reliance on politicians and bureaucrats mean the power has to be organized to balance things out a bit? That would have been an interesting question to raise but I thought it would lead us too far afield from technology. So I figured I would throw it out here. Have a great August MACers.