Rethink Learning

In response to "How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have to do With It) by Marcy P. Driscoll:

Driscoll opens this piece with a story about a 14 year-old boy who brings a PDA programmed like a TV remote and plays with the TV in his classroom.  When the teacher figures out who keeps turning the TV on and off, she takes him to the principle who then bans PDAs.  Driscoll goes on to make about how technology can help a classroom and explains four ideas to help teachers think about technology in their classrooms: Learning occurs in context; Learning is active; Learning is social; and Learning is reflective.

As Driscoll elaborates on these ideas, I can't help but focus on these four sentences.  These overarching ideas outline all of the best lessons I have experienced as a student throughout my education, especially those involving technology.  The best lessons happen when students work together, actually need to think and reflect about the assignment, aren't just sitting at a desk and understand the broader picture of their project.  Today we can find so many technologies that help with these ideas, such as smart boards, interactive computer games, MIDI instruments and more.

The principle banning the PDA may have seemed like an appropriate response to the child's distracting usage of his PDA.  However, rather than focusing on the fact that the child used this technology as a distraction, the teach and the principle could have taken the child's use of technology and used as inspiration for newer technological classroom ideas.