Judith Sotir offers an interesting commentary about the recent Texas judge opinion that textbook money cannot be used to purchase computers for schools. Sotir says she reluctantly understands the judge's reasoning.

I especially appreciate her urging educators to reinvent the box, not just think outside of it about uses of technologes in schools.

I wonder, though, if we can imagine a new metaphore to replace the box. Something with permeable boundaries. Or maybe "no boundaries."

I like books. I like their feel and smell almost as much as their messages. Mrs. Cheney, my fifth grade teacher somehow sparked my appreciation for books and reading.

I have accumulated and given away tons (literally) of books. Still, I collect more weekly.

Yet, I mostly read and write now with a Tablet PC.

I tried for decades to get the hang of using computers routinely. It just seemed easier to use pencils/pens and papers.

It wasn't until I got a Tablet PC that computers began making sense for my daily tasks.

I keep it with my books, because I like both.

I wonder how many of the Texas School Board members use mobile PCs daily, or if they're still paper and pencil people with staff to handle their computing?

And the judge, what electronics does Grey Abbott use daily?

I'll bet Board members and the judge have not yet moved to the point of seeing books and computers both as (hardware) tangibles for conveying intangibles between people.

That view requires a paradigm shift. Maybe younger law clerks who have grown up with electronic and printed paper technologies will help established jurists make that paradigm shift to the advantage of Texas students.


Tablet PC Education Blog