ECE

Microsoft Surface – When?

So, it’s been out for a year or so and the educational implications are just starting to take shape.

Here’s one in a UK Primary School

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/Pages/Experience/Videos.aspx?video=193f800f-5268-491f-9bc7-d2857080ef21

Here’s the link on educational development of this device:

http://www.rm.com/generic.asp?cref=GP1365987&SrcURL=/surface/

Microsoft Surface details:  http://www.microsoft.com/surface

Tech-savvy educational leaders will be watching this development with interest because it constitutes the first viable initiative that can effectively address the dynamic early learning environment.  If we can put these in ECE classrooms with all of the collaborative tools that are demonstrated here, we are on the road to a true revolution of the educational pathway.

Pay close attention to the details here.  Students login by placing a nametag on the table.  Content is tailored to their needs and level – even within the context of collaborative play.  In general, this resolves our discomfort with having young students in front of computers.  Let’s take it one step further and imagine walls that literally open to a child’s fingertips and allows them to interact with inexhaustible content.  Consider the live collaboration and then think of the virtual collaboration that is also possible.  This whole concept just screams for creativity and innovation.

Early Learning – Fighting Fade Out

One of the things on every educational leaders “to-do” list should be addressing early learning.  Similar to what Jeffrey Canada has taught us in the Harlem projects (see previous post), this project in South Shore School District is addressing this challenge.  Consistent with this is a need to look at Birth to 3 programs that address the community and daycare component in addressing the key to the future of education – a comprehensive plan for kids from womb to 3rd Grade.  This is all fully researched and connected to the latest work on brain research. Leaders must address this challenge as critical to sustainable change that has not yet been achieved.