Jerry Garfunkel

I can see why the Metiri Group is popular.  It presents seminars and links to wonderful resources related to teaching 21st Century Skills "Literacy in a Digital Age," et al.   For instance its "Bridge to effective 21st Century Learning" presents Metiri Group's Web Resources, with specific resource links to specific subject areas - Science, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Multidisciplnary.

I found that many of the presentations I followed were archived technology presentations.  At its Metiri Presentations site, one can view a wonderful drop-down list of available PDF and Powerpoint presentations.  All are relevant to an educational technologist.  However, many of the presentations are 2, 3 and 4 years old - some older.  Following a few of the presentations such as "Research-based Solutions That Work," from Cheryl Lemke, Kent State Univ. the first resource link to the Consortium on Chicago School Research was written in January, 2001.  Following another "Moving Forward with NCATE and ISTE Standards for Pre-Service Teachers," from the Univ. of Vermont, it is dated March 2002. There are other examples. 

This is important to me because educational technology, (technology in general) is changing so rapidly, research articles and surveys just a year old often have been superceeded by new technologies and newer research/surveys.  However even the archival presentations contain useful information as a resource for teachers.  And as in any comprehensive web site, links to pages that contain more links to more pages that contain still more links, etc., invariably open endless doors to opportunity and valuable resources.  This is how I've discovered many of the useful resources I've used this year.

Of course not all the material and presentations are old.  Most of the links to research and presentations are current;  but I came across enough "archival" materials to make me suspicious of every site I visited.  I needed to verify that it was presenting current (or nearly current) information. 

That said, this criticism of the Metiri web site, doesn't overshadow the wonderful resources it contains for teachers  who must prepare students with twenty-first century skills.

Jerry Garfunkel,  March 12, 2005