TechCrunch 50 and what it means for schools

I was listening to the TWiT #161 The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte: Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jason Calicanis, Andrew Horowitz, and Geoff Smith on my way to work this morning and was amazed by what I was hearing. Besides talking about many topics, they spent a fair amount of time discussing TechCrunch50 Conference which features some of the best new technology companies and their products. A few are amazing and many are ones I do not fully comprehend. As I listened to the podcast and then later saw what we were doing in the computer labs I wonder what would happen if schools started to have some of the technology integrated into our learning environment. Schools tend to be slower to embrace new technologies or methods and instead stick with what has worked in the past. While there is nothing wrong with this approach it is quite different then how businesses adopt technologies or how students now adopt the technology. I know that Durham Academy has looked at a laptop program and while I am on record in favor of implementing one, we are still in the stage of research.

What does this have to do with TechCrunch50? Lets look at one technology that will shake up schools if or when it comes on our technology. How will Swype make what I taught on Wednesday obsolete or at least very outdated. I was showing the 5th graders how to keyboard using Master Key and of course I do a whole story about the QWERTY keyboard layout and why the layout is the way it is. Kids love it and I really enjoying talking about the levers and the smashing of the keys through the ribbon into the paper. This year I asked the students why are the keys still in the QWERTY layout if we no longer need to worry about levers getting jammed. The most honest answer came from a new student in the back row, who said “old people would not know how to use it”. Is this true, absolutely!

Today students use Thumbboards on cell phones and even Predictive Text along with Virtual Keyboards on iPod Touches or iPhones.

So, someday we will be having Swype classes and instead of WPM (Words Per Minute) we will do SWPM (Swyped Words Per Minute). I have an application on my iPod Touch called Writing Pad that uses similar technology. We are closer then anyone thinks to this technology being in the backpacks or our students. When will we pull it out of the backpack and put it to work in our Moodle Courses? For more background on Swype check out http://www.crunchbase.com/company/swype:

Of course we also have MacSpeech Dictate which is a whole other story.

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