A2 Envisioning Change: Creating Future Scenarios

Pepperdine OMAET – EDC667: School Leadership & Educational Tech – Summer 2002

Projecting 10-years into the future, my classmates and I created scenarios of how technology would be used by future students. In 2001-2002 Myspace was still a thing so I wrote out a series of posts that my teenage character would have put on their page.

2011: Two Possible Worlds and Four Points-of-View

by Stephanie Arthur-Tennenbaum, Joe Bustillos, Henry Price, and Greg Thompson

Residential San Paulo in 2011, just east of what once was historic Pasadena, is the home of Sparks Elementary. The tree-lined community has managed to keep it’s middle-class/working-class “down home feel” while being just a stones throw from the Azusa/San Dimas megalopolis to the east and a short light-rail trip to New Los Angeles, near what was once Burbank in the west. The community may look like “Mayberry” but the student population is decidedly So Cal, with families coming from every corner of the globe, and every major genetic-family-group (what was once called “ethnicity”). Additionally San Paulo’s faculty has endeavored to keep Sparks Elementary’s technologically relevant. For a first-person look at Sparks Elementary’s programs click on one of the four names listed below. For more background information on how these two very different “realities” came to be click here.

Laptops for Everyone	The PC/PDA Approach
* Matt’s Journal (A Student) discovered by Joe Bustillos [see journal below] * Joel “Look” Borland’s Recording (A Teacher) discovered by Greg Thompson	* Charlie Brown’s Diary (A Student) compiled by Henry Price * Ms. Bleu’s Journal (A Teacher) compiled by Stephanie Arthur-Tennenbaum

Ok so we have to do a journal every day so here’s mine. My name is Matt but i’m not a boy. Don’t get all sci-fi on me now, somehow “Madeline” got shortened to “Matt” and I kind’a like it that way.

So journal is important, i guess. I’m a fifth grader at Sparks Elementary. My family came here when I was in first grade, I think. Which is why i’m so so angry. See they promised us all this computer stuff and laptops and lots of cools stuff, so my folks dragged me and my little brother to live here ’cause it was supposed to be better than that other place which i don’t remember ’cause i was like only five when we left. And i guess that it’s better than living like in the projects over there in orange county . . . duh, how lame is that? but that’s not why i’m angry. MTT

March 18, 2011

It’s journal time again. I was bugged last time cause i’ve been at this school since, well, since i can remember and it was supposed to have totally cool stuff for us kids to use. But when I came here the school started to run out of money. every kid was supposed to get a laptop but by the time i came here they stopped buying new laptops and then the old laptops started falling apart. Anyway, the whole thing stinks. MTT

April 15, 2011

i’m tired of writing about this school’s stupid computer program. One of the things that i used to like to do was watch TV. I miss spending my afternoons watching old TV. Back then dad used to tell me about all the old programs that you could watch, stuff like the old Warner Brothers “Loonee Toons” and the Japanese Enamai cartoons. And There was always stuff to watch. At least that’s what dad used to say. I kind’a miss Dad too. MTT

April 29, 2011

Miss Domicile is so dumb. when the school ran out of money for new laptops they started buying these old alpha smart things with these tiny screens and all you can do with the thing is type. that’s it. anyway, ms. d was trying to show us how to use the alpha thing when it died on her and some kid in the back blurted out something about ms. d and all the batteries she uses. That kid got kicked out of the classroom for that. She’s so dumb. I don’t know why she freaked out about batteries. Oh that’s the other thing, none of these teachers know anything about computers. My dog knows more about computers than these fools. MTT

May 13, 2011

I’m bored. We’re supposed to do this journal all the time, but i can only use this dumb alpha smart . . . we call ’em “alpha farts” . . . only once a week on Fridays. Dum. I think i’ll talk my cousin, geraldo, into driving me over to azusa so that I can get this cool tatoo that i’ve been thinking about. I wonder what dad’s doing these days. MTT