Thursday, May 13, 2010

Student Access

TechCrunch reports on big news on the Google front today. It's about 'Froyo', the new Android 2.2, and it has huge implications for web access in schools:
Froyo will have built in USB tethering so you can share your data connection with your laptop... And even better: you can turn your Android phone into a portable wifi hotspot as well.
@concretekax asks four great questions this morning on his blog that all school admins and teachers should be thinking about right about now:
  • Will this type of technology make cable connections obsolete
  • Is paying to put Wi-Fi hotspots in school buildings also a waste of money?
  • Will schools allow students to use this technology or pay waste money on equipment to block the signals?
  • Will this help end the filtering debates and make CIPA irrelevant?
Are you ready for students creating their own wi-fi hotspots? You better be. Because this is the type of thing that more than anything suggests what the future looks like: it's mobile, it's accessible, what used to be public is personal and what used to be personal is public.

Better get to work on those new digital health classes you are going to be offering. You'll have a couple extra bucks to pay for 'em now that your Internet blocking software is obsolete.

2 comments:

  1. Hopefully schools will realize it's in violation of FCC laws to block wireless signals before some kid sues them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love what you do, I really really do. I would love to implement a great many of your techniques in your classroom. I feel, however, that so often the issue of access is overlooked. I work in a low-income school district and nearly every single one of my children live in poverty. I do my best each day to be paperless with what little resources I have (mostly because my school does not have any paper). I beg, borrow, and steal everyday to get what I can for my students in order to prepare them for the future. I just wish that sometimes your blog posts could be, well, for the rest of us.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.