You may have seen the following story before. I share it with you again to let you know what truly inspires me....the potential is enormous. This is an excerpt from a message I received on the Internet some time ago. My children are using this technology to learn - about math, science, social studies, language, reading, music, art. They are not alone. They are among the millions of others who are stepping forward to find out that a Buick in the jungle is more than it appears.
I am proud to lead them in this quest for knowledge. I am a teacher, yes, but I am also an enabler. We all now have the opportunity to enable our children to reach out, learn, and communicate in ways unthinkable just a couple of years ago. More than just an opportunity, I truly believe it is our obligation to provide this to our kids. - Mark Ahlness
Stephen Collins wrote:
I share with you an excerpt from a talk given by Doug Johnson, of Mankato Minnesota:"Pretend for a moment that you are member of a primitive tribe who happens to come across a brand new Buick sitting in the middle of your jungle, miles from any road. But I'll bet you would find lots of ways to use that car:
You could find lots of uses for that Buick, but until you actually saw the car speeding along on a road, you would never know the power and real purpose of a car.
Some folks would say that we are still primitive people when it comes to computers. We see a computer sitting on a desk not attached to a network, and we can find lots of ways to use that machine:
But until we hook that computer up to a network, and use it to communicate with people around the world, and use it to find information on the millions of other computers connected to the Internet, we will never know the power and real purpose of that computer."
Stephen E. Collins, edtech@sec.micro.umn.edu, http://web66.coled.umn.edu/
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