I visited the tradeshow at NECC today, as I usually do. Despite the fact that its one of the bigger tradeshows for ed tech, I’ve been pretty disappointed with it in the past two years and this year was no different.
There was too much of this (again):
and not a whole lot of
or
Can you spot the oxymoron here? Look closely:
And this is the LAST thing I expected to see!
I could have written the same post last year (the proof is in the pudding, as this post on the Handheldlearning forum shows).
So, while this is a somewhat sarcastic look at the tradeshow, it is also a sad reflection of the technology reality in many schools. (management, standardized assessment, blocking/banning). It also makes me wonder how technology priorities are shaped in schools and who they are shaped by. It seems as if the ed tech industry is pushing a lot of the same stuff into schools, without asking teachers and students what it is they REALLY need.
And it hasn’t changed much in the past three years or so… bummer.
Image credits: me, except for the NECC logo.
