It is ALMOST an iPhone

I originally posted this blog entry on my site in April. Since all of the iPhone hoopla happened this weekend, I thought I would post it here.
Enjoy.
Tim


On Saturday, I was walking through Sam’s WholesaleMega-Monster-Multi-Club here in El Paso when I was approached by the
friendly sales lady at the Verizon counter. “Do you have a cell phone?” she asked while I was looking at the large platter and bowl place serving for only $19.00 even though my wife thought it was gaudy.

“Yes I do.”

Do you want a new one?” she persisted, even though I was turning away and paying more attention to the platter.

“No, not really.”

“I got lots of new phones here” she kept on.

“Actually, I said “I want an iPhone from Apple, and Verizon won’t carry them when they come out.”

“Why do you want an iPhone?” she asked as if she had never heard of one before.

“Because it is way cool, and I like Apple products.”

“We have something even better than an iPhone” she said suddenly fully aware of what an iPhone was.

That got my attention. Better than an iPhone? Hmmm.

“It’s ALMOST like an iPhone. Hang on.” she went behind the counter and came back cradling a small cell phone. She handed it to me. “It’s a Samsung.

She handed me a Samsung something or another and it was just a sample. You know the type, with a plastered picture on it to SIMULATE what it might do.

She started listing all the things it could do..camera. video, your windows, be a best friend...

“Can it do iTunes” I asked.

“It does MP3”

“Does it do iTunes?”

“It can play music.”

“iTunes?”

“No, not iTunes. It does Yahoo Tunes or Looney Tunes or something like that”

“Can it synch to my Macintosh computer?”

“It works with computers”

“Will it synch to my Mac?”

“PCs.”

“Mac?”

“No.”

“Can it switch orientation depending on how I look at hold it?”

“No.”

“Does it have a multiple touch sensitive screen?”

“No, it has a stylus, right here..here is the stylus” she pulled the stylus out of the side.

“Does it have Google Earth on it?”

“No”

“Wifi internet capable? True full screen web pages?”

“No, but it does have internet. You just can’t tell from the screen.” by now, she was becoming frustrated and started looking at the other people cruising by her kiosk.

“So it really isn’t too much like an iPhone, is it?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“I think I’ll hang on and wait until the iPhone comes out.”

“Okay, she said, putting the plastic fake phone back into her pocket, “well, if you change your mind, we’ll be right here.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I will.” I went back to the platter, and started looking for my wife, who had long ago left for the 36 rolls of toilet paper section of Sam’s Club.

As I thought about that conversation, I also thought about Ed Tech. A lot of times, we say something is “ed tech” when in reality, it isn’t. For instance, we may take a class of kids to the computer lab, and say that we are doing Ed tech with them, when in reality there is little connection between what is happening at in the lab and what is happening in the “real” classrooms.

We might give students an internet search instead of going to the library and call it ed tech. We might have them word process a paper instead of hand write it and call that ed tech.

The point is, we need to make sure that what we are actually using technology for in education is something that really is useful beyond the normal assignment. What is ed tech>? In Texas, it starts with the Tech Apps TEKS and in many other states it is the ISTE standards for students. These are what our students whould be expected to do and what our teachers should be expected to teach. Nothing less.

Are you really teaching education technology or are you showing your kids a Samsung and telling them that it’s an iPhone?