I just want to make clear that my vision for “schooling” (and I’m not totally committed to that institution, BTW) does NOT begin with technology. Far from it. My vision starts with LEARNING. it recognizes the personal and changing nature of learning. From there, it imagines pedagogy that best facilitates that learning. Where technology-aided means best facilitate that learning, it should be pursued and utilized; only then.

The value of ubiquitous computing is that it affords the possibility of ubiquitous learning. The learners do not just need to go to the learning.

That all being said, Marshall…I wish you knew how much “just plain cool” I experience within my Web-based personal learning network. Go to http://www.thisissand.com . No, it’s not real sand, but I dare you to tell me that’s not “just plain cool.”

Good to see that “old school” in some of us. Although June may not have had an ipod, I thik sh was pretty happy. Yes, things are different, but I think that our youth still need to be young – not just learning machines. Too often it seems that we want to make sure they are moving forward and forget to look at their needs as people. Let him look out the window and wonder not just how birds fly but also why, to where, and whatever else pleases him in nature. That is just plain cool, and we don’t get enough “just plain cool” in our technology filled lives.

There’s a lot that you’ve written that I disagree with (surprise, surprise), but…

my vision for the school of tomorrow is much murkier for elementary age children. I firmly believe they are capable of constructing knowledge by making meeting of observations within their environment. But, negotiating knowledge? Not so much. I firmly believe they can learn in relation to and with others (that’s the whole Reggio Emilia philosophy), but I know all too well from my little guy that there’s very little room for negotiated knowledge. As for technology, I’m less concerned than you are. I think there are ways to use time away from “the screen” for socialization purposes. Roger Schank’s work comes to mind. You might think about reading some of what he’s written.

More importantly, though, when are you applying to our doctoral program? We need good thinkers and writers like you…even if you are a little old school for my taste (-:

Plugged in. What does that mean? To you–the world. Literally, people from everywhere collaboating on anything and opening up worlds. For a child, though, plugged in means plugged in. Don’t ask him to speak, clean his room, come down for dinner. I know my evidence is all anecdotal, but I have a rising first grader reading at a 4th grade level. He’s not a genius. He just thinks computers are for my work. I’ve never bought him a Leapster, DS, Wii–any of that. I’ve told him that TV and computers increase brain rot. It’s kind of a joke we have. The result? He gets bored and starts reading mysteries and historical fiction. Does he WANT his own DS and Wii? Of course! We say no! I just think he needs to be able to speak when spoken to, look me in the eye and say yes ma’am, and do what I ask when I ask him to do it. I know his time will come when he is as wild about social and professional networking as I am–and he’ll be a great at it. For now, though, I’d rather him stare out the window or do what he was just doing when he interrupted me typing–check out the world on a spinning globe he has in his room. In the course of trying to find the rain forest in South America, he ended up asking all sorts of questions about the Amazon river and the Red Sea (vacation bible school, anyone?). Cope acknowledges what I am saying in his document when he writes about the dangers of “grey ecologies”. Just call me June Cleaver as I observe my son spin his globe and watch birds from his window. It may be retro, but it’s pretty cool.

When I think of ubiquitous computing, though, I think of ubiquitous ADVERTISING, I see screens on everything including your toaster, and I think of people relying so heavily on machines that they forget to use their brains – and possibly their bodies.

I wonder if WallE doesn’t paint an accurate picture of ubiquitous computing.