Does Anyone Else Find Watching Simpletons Discuss Technology To Be Oddly Reassuring?

[Wiglaf]

Students can use their own devices (iPods, iPhones, Androids, iPads, whatever) to contribute to the lesson on the board in tons of ways - answering interactive questions, contributing to a real-time word cloud or brainstorming session, etc. They can get up to the board and collaborate together to solve a problem (up to 40 touches on displays up to 110"), etc.

WHEN I SAW THIS ON MY PHONE I SPED HOME BECAUSE OH MY GOD I HAD TO RESPOND TO IT WIHT A KEYBOARD AND MOUSE. I AM JUST SO AMAZED THAT SOMEONE AS SMART AS YOU ARE (I'M NOT SAYING YOU ARE SMART, PLEASE PARSE MY WORDS THANKS) WOULD ACTUALLY THINK THAT THESE FEATUERS ARE UNIQUE TO A SMAR BOARD. HAVE YOU HEARD OF CHALK? DRY ERASE? ALL OF THESE BOARDS CAN BE HAD IN THE SIZE OF MORE THAN 110 INCH, FOR VERY LITTLE MONEY, AND THAT ACCEPT /BOLD/ UNLIMITED TOUCH INPUTS /UNBOLD, WHICH IS PRETTY GREATER A NUMBER THAN 40 TOUCHES

[Elok]

However, as HC noted, with a smart board they can all pretend to be contributing while secretly sending text messages. Chalk is not sexy, and does not earn contractors a lot of money. Finally--and I cannot emphasize this enough--chalk does not allow a student sitting at the back of the class to draw a four-foot-long erect penis on the board while his friends (instructed by text message) distract the teacher.

[Elok]

SMARTBOARD VER. 2.75: NOW WITH ENHANCED STEALTH GIGADICK FEATURE

[Asher]

It's more alarming than amusing that so many of you can be so ignorant and simply not care. It's patently clear none of you understand how the boards and tablets are used effectively in classrooms. All of your examples are absurd and disingenuous and not leveraging the technology.

Out to lunch, in summary.

But by all means, continue the groupthink circlejerks and continue blessing the world with your ignorant opinions. If any of you wishes to seriously examine how the technology is actually used in classrooms and still take issue with it (pedagogically or technologically), start a new thread and we can engage in a serious discussion. Right now it's like trying to debate high-level calculus with middle schoolers that know it all.

[Wiglaf]

You began this conversation by admitting that Microsoft is paying schools millions of dollars to use Surface Pros, and that Microsoft is paying you millions of dollars to port Smartboard software to the Surface. It really sounds like the only people who believe in this crap technology are you and Microsoft's surface PR team.

[Asher]

And then I performed a bit of meta-magic by getting a bunch of simpletons to discuss technology in a thread where we mocked such simpletons.

[Asher]

You began this conversation by admitting that Microsoft is paying schools millions of dollars to use Surface Pros, and that Microsoft is paying you millions of dollars to port Smartboard software to the Surface. It really sounds like the only people who believe in this crap technology are you and Microsoft's surface PR team.

For the record, it's not their PR team that need it. It's a content problem.

Microsoft and Google are very aggressively courting education right now (and actually infiltrating SMART at the highest levels a la Nokia - I predict an acquisition within the year). Teachers aren't using Surface in the classrooms because there's no need to. Their content is in SMART Notebook format so unless it lets them do their activities for their lessons, it's not of any use. So MS is paying to bring the content to the device in the hopes that it drives adoption. Education users follow the content.

Google is also working with us to bring the app to Chromebooks and Android. We're actually the first outside vendor to get a device driver embedded in ChromeOS - Google made an exception for a rather rigid policy in order to get us to help them out.

[Wiglaf]

I don't care. They are driven by profits. No one here is claiming there's no money in it. They're claiming it's a dumb scheme where dumb educators are ripped off and pay millions for useless technology because they're -- wait for it -- simpletons. Please stop with the useless sidebars, thanks.

[Hauldren Collider]

But by all means, continue the groupthink circlejerks and continue blessing the world with your ignorant opinions. If any of you wishes to seriously examine how the technology is actually used in classrooms and still take issue with it (pedagogically or technologically), start a new thread and we can engage in a serious discussion. Right now it's like trying to debate high-level calculus with middle schoolers that know it all.

I would like to know what you consider to be high-level calculus. Unless it's epsilon-delta proofs, discussing calculus with a middle schooler is perfectly reasonable . Except I actually did some epsilon-delta proofs in high school...

[Sava]

In high school I figured out how to forge the attendance slips and made a thousand dollars selling them to people who wanted to ditch and have their absences marked as excused.

[Hauldren Collider]

In high school I figured out how to forge the attendance slips and made a thousand dollars selling them to people who wanted to ditch and have their absences marked as excused.

I won't deny that my high school career was less illustrious than it could have been.

[regexcellent]

Second half of senior year I didn't give any ****s.

[Sava]

HC: Don't feel bad. High school is bullshit.

It eventually caught up with me, sort of. They knew I was behind it, but had no proof. The head dean called me in and berated me for about a half hour, trying to get me to confess. I played dumb and didn't give in. He called me a diabolical little ****.

I got taken out of the rest of my classes (this was March or April of my senior year). I only needed a PE and English credit to graduate. I was supposed to stay for 6 periods... lunch and study hall being my last two periods. I left and went home after 4th every day. Graduated. They were happy to be rid of me.

[Hauldren Collider]

I actually basically have no regrets from high school. I loved HS, and I got a lot out of it. But my situation was highly unusual.

[Aeson]

Bugger off, you supercilious ignoramus. I understood it just fine. It doesn't matter if the board can reach down, unzip your pants and give you the world's best BJ.

Asher would be much wealthier if his devices could do this.