You are Never Alone

Thanks to Stephen Downes for the hat tip here.
As 2010 draws near I’m certain there will be more “predictions” made about the technologies we should take notice of. An article in T.H.E. Journal has come up with 5 technologies to watch in the K-12 sphere.

So my question is: are you ready? Have you played with these yet?

e-books: their feeling, which I share, is that these aren’t going to replace textbooks any time soon, but there is no doubt they will get better. Already there are examples of Australian schools embracing Kindles and other e-book readers.

netbooks: schools are already adopting these in Australia, but in some cases the functionality is still a bit limited. Bandwidth continues to be our biggest problem, followed closely by teaching methods that encourage their use in innovative and worthwhile ways.

interactive whiteboards: many primary schools in Australia have made this their technology of choice, but it seems also we need to get better at using them as more than a data show projector.

personal devices: iPods, mobile phones: we’re pretty good at banning these devices in Australian classrooms and we need to get better at allowing them, and still implementing cyber safety procedures. We also need to come up with “plans” for how to cost their use in the classroom. Parents aren’t going to be too happy if we build them into our lessons and then expect them to pay.

tailored curricula: this is not just using technologies to personalise learning, but also the development of software that tracks the achievements of benchmarks. Letting our students branch out from the path that every one else in the class is following is also part of this. The Australian National Curriculum will have to embrace this.

So what will you do to prepare for 2010? Where are you with these trends?