Lightning in a Bottle

MSNBC today has an article on kids blogging. It looks at some of the security issues, such as kids putting too much personal information on their web pages. It’s a good, comprehensive article. For more information on this topic, check out the iSafe America website. They have quite a bit of info on their site, and you can sign up for trainings on the use of their fairly extensive curriculum. (Puget Sound ESD is a certified training organization for this.)

What the article doesn’t discuss, and I think is a more widespread issue, is the use of blogs to bully or harass other students. Many kids don’t seem to understand that it’s one thing to put down snarky, catty comments about other students in their diary, and it’s something completely different to record it in a blog where all can see it.

Sometimes I feel like all the energy we have to put into dealing with the new problems created by technology almost cancels out the potential benefits. I suppose that’s because kids are more naturally inclined to use technology for purposes that don’t add anything educationally (gaming, chatting, blogging, searching for non-educational entertainment) than to increase their academic skills.

This shouldn’t be a surpise, though, should it? In a book store, do kids trot over to the reference section, or head for the comic books?

Bill Gates demonstrated a concept for a new family of portable computers. Called Ultra Mobile 2007, these devices would be smaller than current Tablet PCs, but bigger than PDAs. The goal is a sub-$1,000 device that weighs less than two pounds and is always wirelessly connected. Sounds to me like a device that could actually make the idea of an electronic textbook possible, if they can make it durable enough.

We constantly try to help districts recognize the value of leasing computers. It allows a school to buy computers at one time and spread the cost out over three or four years, instead of purchasing machines in yearly increments. Because of rapid computer evolution, buying your machines in annual batches creates a situation with multiple models, instead of the consistency you can achieve leasing everything at once. The interest rates for schools is very, very low as well.

Here’s one small district and their success with leasing.