The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

This morning I "sat" for the NYSTCE examination for Educational Technology Specialist at the Jacob Javits Center. An early morning start (7:45 a.m.) and an immense, long line-there were other exams being administered as well....LOTS of other exams.
It seemed very "stock & trade" kind of questions-avoiding platform issues and specific commercial application references. It also showed its age. It was almost entirely focused on installed application use, making virtually no references to the burgeoning web-apps that seem to multiply daily. While I've only been out of the classroom for 18 months (after 16 years in-class), I don't think I could possibly run a classroom in the same way now as I did in the past. Given these new venues: blogs, wikis, podcasts, flickr, etc....a paper document-while still giving students options- are anchored to the classroom and the desk where they live. They can not be shared, seen, discussed, critiqued, applauded or condemned by anyone from anywhere unless they're in that room, and at that desk.
Middle school is painfully saturated by student's social environment. What a better match for these students than to have a 24/7 stage for their work where others in and outside their community can dialog about their ideas and enthusiasms.
I know that there has to be some safety and protection provided to sensitive egos, and this can be done. But there's no doubt in my mind that these new technologies are not only "madd cool", but show us new ways that draw students' interest and creativity, and show the age lines of paper-bound assignments.

"The King is Dead! Long Live the King"

I've Been Absent for Three Weeks?

Just noticed that it's been a long, llloonngg, time since posting.
Not that I haven't been reading other tech educators' blogs. There are always things to consider in this area of education-a constant flow of innovations to learn about and incorporate.
I think the funding cuts to EETT/Title IID have stunned me a bit and created some questioning of the future opportunities in this field. So much seems to rest on federal and state leadership in this area to make it happen. Building this new infrastructure requires serious investment. In the absence of this, there have to be very resourceful, clever, resilient leaders to do what needs to be done in spite of the the political mood shifts that wash over public schools.
There's no doubt in my mind that we are far behind the curve with technology in the schools. There has been so much ground opened up and schools have barely tiptoed into into this new territory.
Maybe we need to push innovation; be relentless and insistent; make some noise and advocate to bring these new skills to students who will need them.
It's time to network; to pull together; to make things happen; and to move the bar up without hesitation.
It's also time to invite others to our blogs-including mine.