Cathie: No joking today, Elliot; we have to get this notice posted and folks in bloggerville have to ACT – TODAY. NOW. IMMEDIATELY. The file is posted at:
http://www.goknow.com/goknowshare/SprintFCC.doc
Elliot: I don’t ever joke around, Cathie; it’s you who …
Cathie: Yes, yes.. it’s all my fault. Now, let’s get on with it, pleeeeease.
Elliot: As long as you take full responsibility then I will indeed proceed.
Cathie: Proceed or I will clobber you.
Elliot: Michael Flood of Sprint is asking all of us to join in requesting a key rule change in E-Rate funding.
Cathie: Right now, if a student takes a computing device home and connects to the Internet to do his or her homework, E-Rate will not pay for that “home connectivity” – even if the student is connecting to the Internet, safely, through his or her school’s proxy server. The E-Rate rule is that devices must be used on campus, not off-campus.
Elliot: Michael is making the argument that even if the student is not on the physical campus, the student is on the logical campus. For all intents and purposes, the student is “on campus” since he or she is connecting to the Internet through the school’s Internet connection.
Cathie: This is a critical change in E-Rate rules. It is absolutely critical that students be allowed – encouraged, required even – to take their mobile computing devices home and use them for curricular purposes from home – or from the library, the museum, the park, the baseball diamond, the mall. Learning is 24/7 and it is definitely not confined to a school building.
Elliot: Now I will steal one of Cathie’s lines – mobile technology is the one technology that can actually help bridge the digital divide.
Cathie: If a child has a cellularly connected mobile device in his or her hand, then that child can answer whatever questions that child has. The child can get help and answers right then and then. For that poor, urban or rural child having such a connected device is an unprecedented opportunity. The mobile connected device levels the playing field – for the first time.
Elliot: OK, Run, don’t walk and download the file with instructions on how to communicate to the FCC that it needs to change its rules and allow E-Rate to pay for mobile, networked devices that a child uses from home. Remember, the child is going to the Internet via his or her school’s filtered and safe proxy server. The telco’s can set up a link, a VPN for example, to make that connection happen; no problem.
Cathie: So, even though the child is at home using the Internet on his or her mobile device, the child is logically still on the school campus.
Elliot: Cathie, we have repeated ourselves in this blog posting.
Cathie: I know, but sometimes you have to say things twice, each time a little differently, before folks can actually hear it.
Elliot: Ahh, multiple linked representations and multiple entry points – that’s consistent with Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Cathie: Say good night Gracie.
Elliot: Good night, Gracie – and download that document now now now! Please with sugar on top!!
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