I have been experimenting with both Google Home and Amazon Echo for a while now. I love them. My kids each have a Dot and I think that this is just the start to smarter homes and more productive lives.
I was thinking the other day about Smart Homes and more importantly Smart Classrooms……
Are we creating a learning environment that challenges students in the correct way? If every classroom was equipped with a Google Home or Amazon Echo for students and teachers to use during class, during tests, and basically at any point in the learning, then are the challenges we are working to solve challenging enough?
My 5 year old daughter will hammer these devices with questions of curiosity. Do we entice the same curiosity in our classrooms where we can allow machines to do the low level work so we can dig deeper into thought, problem solving, and learning?
I challenge you to take out a test or assessment and ask one of these devices the questions you are posing. If they can answer, then what will you change? If they cannot answer them, then how will you take this opportunity to push to new levels of exciting learning?
Let us make sure we are not simply giving answers, but giving great problems to solve. Enough of the tech police, banning the use of cell phones, computers, and whatever tool is the choice at the moment and instead develop situations that these tools are simply tools to push to new levels of thought. Perhaps our fear of tech lies more in the idea that we fear our work is not good enough as opposed to tech actually being bad.
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