EduShyster has captured in one small post the essence of the classroom of the future.
We will go where no nation in the world has ever dared to go:
Schools where happy teachers (all of them Excellent) have classes of 100 or more students, each one enjoying a customized, personalized education on their own tablet.
Think of the savings! Think of the market! Think of the profits!
Watch the video embedded in the link and you may notice the delightful homogeneity of the children in the cafeteria-style classroom, each learning at his or her own pace, all well-scrubbed, well-clothed and very happy to have their very own tablet.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If the goal is to use the most resources possible in education, why not assign multiple tutors to each individual student?
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It would have been a better video if the kid dropped and broke their learning computer. And then they show them really sullen and sitting in class and on the bus eating paste. And then the teacher gives them a new computer and they laugh and smile and the sun rises.
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What amazes me is that tech folks never think like a child. They never think a child would actually hack another student’s account. That they would steal their work, that they would drop the tablet to see what happens, especially once the newness of the tablet has worn off. Talk to just one school-based IT person to see what happens when kids meet tech, it ain’t in the video.
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Here’s a Minnesota (district) public school teacher who has created a classroom using some of the emerging technology. Lots of people are paying attention. His is not the only vision, but it seems to be working with youngsters in his classroom. The local teacher’s union president is a strong supporter of Mr. Pai.
http://www.educationevolving.org/pai
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Thanks for the video. It is great to see innovation happening. One of my favorite little details is the machine in the background of Curtis Johnson’s discussions. Very high tech.
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I don’t know what’s more depressing about this: the kids in Mr. Pai’s class, listlessly playing the computer games that will *finally* propel them across the achievement gap and into their 21st century occupations, or the “advocates” who hover vulture-like just off screen poised with expert “analysis” ever at the ready. There seem to be an astonishing number of people in Minnesota cashing in on the reform fever that has your state in its clutches. btw: I’m at work on a post called Stop the Minnesanity about the combo of edu-hysteria, faulty logic and rampant cronyism that appears to be the order of the day there. Please let me know if you have any insights…
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Other public school teachers invited him to give a keynote at their state convention:
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Excellent vision of the future. Don’t forget to have the teacher’s lessons beamed back to a central location for big brother to watch and listen and give feedback. The student’s daily work will be beamed to Murdoch’s progeny to mine and develop products. A truly Brave New World.
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I beginning to think being Amish and raising your kids to follow Old Amish laws might not be such a bad thing.
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What I didn’t see was the gang members stealing the ipads from kids in the playground. Yes, and the students will sit quietly on the bus doing their assignments.
I agree the future will look a lot like this. Students have to move to pads and computers. They are on them now, we have to progress as teachers and schools or be left behind. I remember the typing teacher who left because she didn’t see the future in computers.
Maybe charters can lead the way. Don’t know. I know I often took the suggested lessons in the company’s texts and tweaked them for the class based on needs of the students. Districts, unions, and teachers need to progress with the times.
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Bill, I don’t see Mr. Pai’s classroom as the only model. It’s one approach. There are some great project based schools that are secondary. Central Park East and Urban Academy in NYC are very good. So is Minnesota New Country, Avalon in Minnesota, and Codman Academy in Boston. No one best approach. But successful schools will, I think, make greater use of emerging technology.
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