Friday, December 9, 2011

My Educational Technology Christmas List

It's the time of year when children are adding their final items to their Christmas list and making the trek to the local mall to tell the Jolly Old Elf what tops their list for Christmas. Keeping in that spirit, here is my educational technology wish list, in no particular order:

  • Apple to get their 'stuff' together to make iPads / iPods more compatible with school environments - we want to be able to volume license apps for classroom sets, we want iTunes to work better in an enterprise environment, we want true educational discounts, etc.
  • more bandwidth - enough said!
  • more new Google features - seems like there are always new things making life better for Google users in schools (my last discovery was Google CloudPrint).
  • a stable Student Information System with clean data.
  • lower prices for assistive technology - I know that it is a somewhat limited market, but come on, these are the students who need it the most!
  • teachers to understand that mindless Internet games are a not a good use of divisional resources.
  • devices for all students - for every student to have a personal device under their tree this Christmas and to be able to bring it to school.
  • fewer computer labs in the schools - more use of wireless computers / devices when needed, in the classrooms.
  • full time help desk - we can always use more help!
  • video conferencing capabilities in all schools.
  • quality Internet access at home for all students, allowing them to leverage the tools that they are using at school.
  • more tech innovators who 'get it', when it comes to education.

What would you add to this list?