Pommes Frites & Mayonnaise – an Intellectual Aphrodisiac

Elliot: So this week we didn’t blog because we went east, not west.
Cathie: We attended the EDUSummIT 2009 in Den Hague, Nethlerlands. The goal of the conference was “to gather professionals, policy makers and researchers in the field to jointly discuss the implications of the findings of the Handbook for practice, policy and research in the field of information technology in primary and secondary education.”
Elliot: Springer recently published the “International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education,” a 1225 page, 2 volume, $500 tome, edited by J. Voogt and G. Knezek, containing papers written by researchers from all over the globe that took the temperature of practice, policy and research in information technology in primary and secondary education.
Cathie: So what is the take-away for school administrators in the U.S. from this conference?
Elliot: Besides the fact that the Dutch have great shops were one can take-away pommes-frites smothered in mayonnaise?
Cathie: Ah, so those grease stains on your shirt sleeves came from wiping mayonnaise off your beard; why am I not surprised. And that explains your greasy keyboard, too.  You better not have a heart attack before this blog posting is finished!
Elliot: Thank you for your deep concern for my health.
Cathie: Well, are your arteries too clogged to answer my question?
Elliot: We researchers need to work with school folks to envision what schools will be, not where they are or have been.
Cathie: That’s very hard, since the past is not a predictor of the future. How the schools have looked is not a good predictor of how they are going to look because of the exponential nature of the impact of information technology.
Elliot: Yes, the impact of technology is exponential, it is non-linear, and non-linear is really hard to understand. All interesting processes in life are non-linear.
Cathie: Please, be concrete – for a change.
Elliot: OUCH -- You don’t miss an opportunity….  It is absolutely inevitable that in the next 2-4 years classrooms will go from 4 computers in the back of the classroom to a 1:1 situation – every child having his or her own personal computer 24/7.
Cathie: It’s really hard to believe it will change that quickly.
Elliot: That’s non-linear change; that’s disruptive change; that’s really hard to get your head around – but it is going to happen sure as the sun will rise again tomorrow.
Cathie: The inevitability of that change – and the speed at which it will happen -- was definitely hard for some EDUsummIT attendees to understand. Indeed, some clearly didn’t believe it.
Elliot: That’s it! The way to understand exponential change is to clog your brain’s arteries with pommes frites smothered in mayonnaise.
Cathie: Some things you say make great sense – and some things are just rants!
Elliot: Folks in blogville, what do you think? Who agrees with me about the inevitability of the change – and the speed at which it will happen?

Cathie: And who believes that pommes frites smothered in mayonnaise are an intellectual aphrodisiac?
Elliot: Quite a turn of a phrase; I would be really impressed if you could say that in Dutch!
Cathie: En wie gelooft dat frieten met mayo intellectuele lust opwekt?
Elliot: You cheated!
Cathie: <smiling Mona Lisaly>

Comments

[George]

Interesting posts you have here ... I can see that you put a lot of hard work on your blog. I'm sure I'd visit here more often.
George
from aphrodisiac.

[Elliot Soloway]

Thank you for your comment, George. Indeed, we do put a bunch of hard work into our blog! Actually, it's VERY nice to be appreciated! Elliot