A couple of weeks ago, the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center held a panel to discuss ways to implement technology in the classroom.Marijean Jagger, Waldo Jaquith, Sean Tubbs, Jim Bain, and I were some of the “tech folks” invited to participate along with several members of the Charlottesville and Albemarle School systems.What technology did we recommend?  The “tech” folks in attendance agreed on many things, most strikingly that focusing on which tech tools to use was not the best use of resources.Reading, writing, critical analysis, independent thinking, independent research – from multiple, often contradicting sources – these were the skills that the tech people thought should be the focus….  By the time bureaucracies figure out how to use Facebook, something else likely will be emerging to take its place.Changing gears, the argument is often made that “we’re in the real estate business, not the technology business!”…  Fragmentation of the message will continue in 2008, but there will be an equally vigorous effort to reassemble (and profit from) the disparate messages and mediums.Dustin said it perhaps best:I really don’t care if its a new CMS, new listing tool, new social network, new blogging tool, new MLS backend, or new analysis reports… If you can get enough consumer eyeballs, the real estate agents will follow.Same goes for the school system.

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