Ultra-Mobile Computing

I often get asked where technology is going in education? Where will we be in ten years time? At the moment one-to-one laptop schools are quite rare, but that is bound to change as more and more schools get the message that the world is changing and education is changing with it.

A computer is just a tool - a very powerful tool, but it will soon be common place in schools, like calulators are today. One of the trends that will continue is that machines will continue to get smaller the so called Ultra-Mobile PC or UMPC. At the moment they are trying to compete with full size laptops and are being found wanting, but as bandwidth increases to grow, we will see a move to thin client devices, where movie files are moved online for editing.

One-to-One Laptop Programs

There was a real buzz at the EARCOS Admin Conference about One-to-One Laptop Programs, many schools are either going that way or thinking of going that way. Also heard mentioned in many discussions was "Tablets". Quite a change from last year, Tablets now seem to have become accepted as having many advantages for schools.

One of the highlights of the conference was the informal panel discussion/forum "What's Happening Now in Educational Technology?" This is were administrators got to quiz Tech experts about where technology in education was going. The common response was: One-to-One

This is a video of my tablet presentation:



One of the videos I used in my presentation was a Toshiba video, which showed how one school had piloted a one-to-one tablet program.


Technorati Tags: [Tablet PC], [One-to-One Laptop],

EARCOS Administrators' Conference 2007 in K.L.

I will be offering two workshops at EARCOS Administrators' Conference


1) Teaching with Tablets: the development and use of a one to one tablet laptop program. Notes are available here: Teaching with Tablets

2) Taking learning online: developing an online curriculum to support teaching and learning. Notes are available here: Taking learning online

Target Audience:
Teachers or Administrators interested in developing technology in schools or using it to enhance teaching and learning.

Description of Workshop:
· Teaching with Tablets:

This workshop will look at some of the pitfalls and tips for piloting a laptop program. It will consider the total cost of ownership and how such programs can be funded. How laptops can be used to enhance teaching and learning and the special benefits of tablets and digital ink.

· Taking learning online:

This workshop will look at how to developing an online curriculum and use it effectively to support teaching and independent learning, both in and outside the classroom.

Technorati Tags: [Tablet PC], [EARCOSadmin07],

Learning 2.0 Shanghai

Great Technology Conference - and a big thanks to Jeff Utecht for getting us all Twittering and Ninging; before; during and after the conference. This technology is so great for creating community, that I have decided to use it to support ISTEC - the International Schools Technology group in Thailand. NIST is hosting our next meeting on 8th October and I am pleased that Chris Smith will be joining us.







Visit IntSchTech


Technorati Tags:[Education], [learn2cn], [Technology], [Learning 2.0 Shanghai],

Technology at NIST 3 Years on; time to move on

This is the NIST Server room 3 years ago, when I joined NIST as Tech Director. The three main storage "servers" (desktops) for secondary staff; elementary staff and students each with 40Gb of space!

The NIST Server room today - note the IBM Blade Centre and over 7 Terabytes of storage

Wireless network and one-to-one Tablet laptop program

Wireless projectors in every classroom

Online Curriculum using class wikis on windows sharepoint

With the exception of the tablets themselves; which were build into the school fees ; all this technology was financed out of existing budgets.

So at the end of this academic year; the tablet program will be full rolled out and I will be looking for another school to start the process all over again!

The International year of the wiki

"The International year of the wiki" was written on a 07-08 planning calendar in our staff room last June. We are not sure by whom, but my suspicion is that it was Malcolm Nicolson, the MYP Coordinator, a guy with a great sense of humor. He has since moved to become head of the MYP in Cardiff, which is a great loss to the school. But why was it so funny? Well at the beginning of last year none of the staff had even heard of wikis, yet over the next 12 months the whole of the secondary school curriculum was moved online on to wikis. People had spent so much time wikiing, that many actually believed 07-08 was the International year of the wiki “Is it really?”; “so everybody’s wikiing are they?”

These are two training videos I did; which are available from our network in high definition and on Google videos, out of school.

Marketing your school as a Technology School

The start of another school year and I see that another article has been published about Technology at NIST, this time in Education Living NIST has been the subject of a number of Newspaper and Magazine articles, including PC WORLD; EWorld; Winmag; and The Bangkok Post. I also have presented at a number of conferences: ISAT Teaching Conference; The World Teacher Congress; Tech Ex 2005; IBO SEA technology conference in Singapore; EARCOS ADMIN and EARCOS Teacher Conferences 2006-7 in Bangkok and I will be presenting also workshops at EARCOS ADMIN and EARCOS Teacher Conferences 2007-8 in Jakarta. All this helps to brand the school as a technology school. See the IT in NiSt. http://www.nist.ac.th/Technology/