On K-12 Websites in Educational Technology, Jim says, "there are so many ways to focus here. From the perspective of rich informational portals, there is one of my long time favorites, RefDesk. Any teacher or student who hasn't visited the wonderful American history resource provided from the Library of Congress site is missing a wealth of information. With the tragic decrease of art education in our schools, a site such as Artcyclopedia provides well over 100,000 images of various works of art."
On College Technology Expectations
"This probably is very school dependent, but from my perspective I feel that many kids actually do not know as much about technology as their parents [go parents!] think they do. The real generational difference is in the lack of fear that kids have to pick up new information and learn new tools. Many adults think that there is a red button on a computer which, if they click on it, will destroy everything they've saved (ala Mission Impossible). Kids just keep clicking away, knowing that one of their clicks will finally work for them.
With that said, I don't think many kids have the technology fundamentals. If we view the internet as the world's public library, why aren't we providing tools to kids that help them understand how to access the information? I know, kids know how to "Google", but do they really know how to search for information [Can I get a Amen!]. And, with the 2-way posting of information that is prevalent today (see my next answer), being able to use various types of research sites (search engines, portals, niche sites) will help provide balanced information."
Predictions "My crystal ball these days doesn't say much more than I'm probably going to gain about 5 pounds due to all the good holiday foods around (it's also showing an exercise bike in my future, but that seems a bit distant)." [Levity is a good thing]
A few thoughts about 2007 technologies…
RSS will continue to expand, even if people don't know they're using it. With tools from Yahoo and Google, as well as integrated into browsers such as Firefox and the new version of IE, people will continue to learn how to customize their own pages with information of interest to them.
Two-way communications will continue to become the norm. Not just conversational tools such as IM and VoIP (though that will continue to expand), but how information is posted and shared. The growth of blogs and podcasts will continue exponentionally. An interesting article about how USA Today is reshaping their regional newsrooms to reflect the Digg model of user-based information continues this trend forward. The term crowdsourcing is being used to reflect this significant change.
Wireless & broadband keep moving to become a standard. RFID tags, WiMax, wireless communities, EvDO cards, wearable devices, among many others, will continue to become more prevalent."
I'd like to thank Jim for sharing with SLJ Blog readers his technological insights. You can also sign up for his FREE monthly technological newsletter and, if food is (or will be come the holidays) getting you down, you can order his uplifting fabulous food book by clicking HERE.