Thought Leaders in Online Education: Warren Barkley, CTO of SMART Technologies (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: That sounds terrible. The example you gave is shocking.

Warren Barkley: That was probably one of the worst examples. I’ve seen scenarios where kids aren’t allowed on the network, so they have apps downloaded for them. They can work on some applications, but then there’s no learning artifact out of it. The devices can’t just be fancy game-playing machines. You’ve to have output in the form of a digital artifact that kids can carry along and see the learning. In a lot of places, the best thing I’ve heard around this is that our classrooms are authentically reflecting the reality of the society that our kids live in today. I mean that in more of a technology way. Yet, I go into so many schools where there are detectors at the door that knows if you have a cellphone and strips devices away from the kids. There is no social media. There is no connection to the wide world when you get into these classrooms. I think that’s part of this rub that kids have with learning. I’m sitting in this room isolated from the world whereas when I walk out the door, I’m in this massive community. Are we building our classrooms to really reflect the world they live in? It’s an interesting thing. You see that in some places in the US; it’s certainly not in the majority.

Sramana Mitra: Essentially, when new technology goes into the mainstream, it takes a while to get fully rolled into the workflow and to have all the teachers, students, and stakeholders trained on productive workflows. If you project out, at what point are we talking? Are we talking end of the decade, another 15 to 20 years when things really start to become productive and well penetrated and well trained?

Warren Barkley: Some of the studies that I have seen on some of that suggest that we overestimate what can happen in five years and underestimate in 10 years. I think probably the seven-year mark is when all this becomes immersed. The thing that’s interesting though in this is that it depends on when the stakeholders decide that they’ve had enough because if you look at the consumer technology and the technology that many kids have in their homes, it’s so many generations more advanced than what they have in the school. It’s one of those things where the consumerization of IT in corporate world is happening also in the consumer world. I think schools are struggling with that.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Warren Barkley, CTO of SMART Technologies
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