Aaron Fowles sent along this video from Fox 5 News in Memphis, Tennessee that highlights the MidSouth Technology Conference, which is an edtech event for K-12 teachers (warning–first 30 seconds of video is an obnoxious Xmas ad). And while I was watching the video for the EDUPUNk reference at 1:11 (it’s actually a fleeting image from Aaron’s presentation) I was struck by the message that Fox took from the conference in it’s two minute report: school’s are engaging free web-based technologies for quick and easy innovation. Say what? Fox News 5 nails it?! Jesus, they are starting to look pretty good compared to The Chronicle and the like. I was ready for the fear and loathing, but it never came, and from what I can see of the conference, it looks like we really are starting to see the wider trend of free, web-based tools take hold as an alternative philosophy to expensive and proprietary systems.
What’s more, is that Aaron was presenting on creating your own Whiteboard using a Wii remote—-something I know Grant Potter and Patrick Murray-John have also been experimenting with—which is pretty crazy when you think about it. You take a $2,000-$4,000 (note: changed pricing by a decimal point thanks to that jackass Tom Woodward) piece of equipment that schools are buying up to suggest they are using edtech, and you reproduce it with less than $100 worth of equipment that’s is highly portable. Now that’s impressive, and whether or not Whiteboards are the best use of instructional technology resources becomes that far less an issue because they’re cheap, you can hack them to do what you want, and you’re freeing up funds to invest in people to imagine what they can do rather than investing in soon to-be-outdated proprietary machines. Edufabricators 
PS – First, Fox has to push using technology. Then they wait and if anything semi negative happens they set the fires.
Don;t get smart with me, I was thinking in aggregate, but put individual prices. Give me a figure smart guy.
I saw Bart’s teacher get replaced and they sort of made fun of the tech use but Bart was actually interested in school. I thought it was more about how the system destroys anyone who actually cares- at least that’s how I interpreted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ
If a portable quick and dirty solution is all you need, the wii mote is fine.
Is this video interesting?
I wonder if Tom would calm down if I fed him some pie.
I can’t say why, but if I close my eyes I keep envisioning Mike running around and jumping like a rodeo clown.
Additionally, I will bring extra blankets to pie dispensing location.
PowerPoint is a truck stop toilet trader, roughly shoving itself down my throat and not even bothering to ask my name.
I can’t imagine why
I think dirty sexual metaphors for edtech is the next craze in the opened field. Folks are just piloting it out here in the bava comments because they know it is one of the last free speech zones in higher ed. And, truth be told, I am even more interested than ever to see who this Joel maniac is.
Like I posted on my own blog, but will repeat here: IWBs are not all that and a bag of chips. They are just the bag of chips. A teacher needs a solid pedagogical background to teach. Basta. In attempting to reach every child, however, teachers need to study technology.
Some teachers get too caught up in their gear, it is true. A much larger opportunity for improvement, though, lies in the teachers who are not using the tools that are available to them.
As a quick add-on, IWBs are great for classrooms that only have one computer. Many urban classrooms are in that very condition. Thousands of teachers lug their own laptops into the classroom everyday, some have to bring their own projectors (I am lucky enough to have one from the ESL department in my district). An IWB opens that one computer up for use by the whole class, which is, in three words, made of awesome.
Insipidly-written blogs?
Inspiring Water Boys?
I could do this all day.
Ignore the riff raff the bava comments pick up, I’ve been trying to get rid of these people for years. As to your point, it is about the people, I agree, and when you demonstrate who an investment in people affords innovation beyond simply a tool, I think you make your own argument that much stronger. Thanks for passing on the link, and sorry about the name misspelling, I am a terrible speller, and even worse comment moderator.
@D’Arcy, @Les, @Shannon, and @Lisa,
You are, indeed, riff raff, but you’re my riff raff. I love you all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5AdgQQ2j70
Daddy’s hands were soft and kind when I was cryin’
Daddy’s hands were hard as steel when I’d done wrong
Daddy’s hand weren’t always gentle but I’ve come to understand
there was always love in Daddy’s hands
That’s all I’ve got.
I couldn’t have said it better, you poetry gives me pause.
@Luke,
Fox 5 is the truth.
@Ed,
Brilliant! I do too.
@Chronic,
Who are you? what kind of satirical craziness are you up too? Also, I completely agree with you on EDUPORN so does @Chris, he’s just smart enough not to admit it within this thread.
Keep your stinking Jimmyhands off me, you damn dirty EDUPUNK!!!
Oh, and, speaking of EDUPORN, no one has yet noted that the reporter looks like Little Annie Fanny in a really unflattering outfit.
@Chris – If you stick “edu” in front of any word, you get some awesome things. Edupunk, edublog, educhicken, edutext, eduface, eduspace, educat, edu….cation?
Here’s a question: If the Fox News Channel were to air a story about an ed tech conference and spend some time on EDUPUNK, what might the spin be like? What could Bill O’Reilley say about the Right Reverend?
I’ll be there!
Mikhail, that wasn’t a real link, but an expression: “gaming dot edu”, the intersections of gaming and education. Thanks!
ha