Slashdot Mirror
Good and Bad Uses of Tech in Public Schools?
skot asks: "I am a high school math teacher and recovering journalist working on an article about innovative (and insane) uses of technology in the classroom. I have seen schools plunk down thousands of dollars on handheld computers that teachers and students basically use as notebooks - fancy, expensive notebooks. I have also seen teachers try to forbid their students from using the internet in a research project. I'm sure many Slashdot readers have lived through experiences like this - and more. If you want to share your stories, I'd love to hear 'em."
Good:
Having the teacher give the give the lecture as a power point presentation with a LCD projector. The slides can then be published on the web for later consumption
Bad:
have the teacher try to give a powerpoint presentation, but not get power point, or just being really unfamiliar, and thus slow.
i really hate poorly done powerpoint presentations that teachers just done because they feel they have to
You should know how to do things without the machines (IE, by hand) before you learn to do things with.
A good example is math. Many people know how to do "2+2=" on a calculator so it spits out 4, but these days I watch kids freak out as I work (say) 3/492 on a piece of paper. They are awed; I am scared.
This sig no verb.
It still hasn't killed my zeal, but it does get tough. It's the only industry left in this country that is perpetually understaffed with regard to IT staff. How many 1,500 employee person corporations would have a 5 person IT department?
My personal pet peeve is graphing calculators. Why pay over a $100 for a calculator, when for the same money you can get a palm and load on graphing calculator software?
Only in the last several years has there been a clear move to use the computer as an integrated tool, and not to use it as a reward or a game machine.
Disclaimer: I work at a regional center in Georgia that teaches such integration.
Towards that end, I've seen a lot of neat uses. It takes more than just a powerpoint slideshow to actually enhance learning, though. Having the students do research and then create their own powerpoint is more effective. (as long as they don't use a sound effect for every letter entry...)
The key element is to get the students involved. The instructor can use a tool such as Inspiration to do concept outlines, and then make those available as notes.
I'll think of more examples later...
stored on computers from birth to the grave
That's one of the most exciting things about the web. When I was in K-12, it always bothered me to see my classmates accept everything they found in standard reference works as the purest gospel. Nobody recognized that dictionaries and encyclopedias are written by fallible humans, subject to peer and political pressure, cultural bias, and a permanent tendency to oversimplify. When I see kids educating themselves via the discordant voices of the web, I envy them a lot
That's an example of why I advocate a much more old-fashioned education program than most here would like. Believe me, I love computers and find them to be an important part of my life, a hobby and passion as well as a tool. However, I believe they deserve a limited place in our schools because the money could better be used on more teachers for smaller class sizes, and higher teacher pay for attracting and retaining better teachers.
Basically, elementary school kids IMHO don't need to be using computers in school at all. They aren't doing the kinds of essays and reports that require extensive amounts of detailed information, so the time and expense should be spent on more traditional teaching--reading, using basic indexes and encyclopoedias, etc.
The argument is made that this gets "rich kids" who can afford computers at home an advantage by being introduced to computers at a younger age. Poppycock--I went to school during the period when most of the people I know never used a computer beyond using an Apple ][ as a glorified typewriter until they reached college, and yet they all picked up on good computer use within a month of being at college since by then it was necessity. So, don't tell me people who start on computers in elementary school will have an inherent advantage over those introduced in middle school. Besides, this is the era of the $200 Wal-Mart PC, so even most low-income families can afford a computer at home.
It's in middle school that computers should be introduced into the curriculum in order to prepare students for the need to do more detailed and thorough research on essays, etc., that they need to start doing in middle and high school. Shifting the focus off technology and back onto the basics in elementary schools would, in and of itself, save a fortune in elementary IT spending that could be used on better teachers and on making sure all middle and high schools have adequate computing equipment and excellent instructors to teach their use.
Just my opinion anyway. Too many of the kids I know know more about computers than they do about basic vocabulary, indicating a very misplaced priority in our schools. What good is the ability to look up information on the Web with great efficiency if you can't understand it in detail, much less analyze it thoroughly? Kids are graduating high school today knowing more than they need to about PCs and less than they need to about language, reading, math, and analytical thought. The latter things clearly need better emphasis, and the time to spend teaching them needs to come from somewhere. A good solid liberal arts education is still the best way to prepare students for anything, and they're not getting one.
The evidence of that is everywhere, from the need for the College Board to "dumb down" the "new" SATs to the rising numbers of college freshmen in remedial English and math classes. I went to a college where there was a proficiency exam requirement before first-year placement and for second-year advancement--and the professors administering it complained that every year fewer students placed well or passed the advancement exam the first time around, despite the fact that the college's population numbers and general makeup were static. The only conclusion for such a situation is that high schools were preparing the students less and less in terms of fundamental language and math skills.
Computers are wonderful and teaching their use is a necessity at least in high schools. But they are being over-emphasized at the expense of the fundamentals.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Let's take a look at the problem here. First of all, I don't think you probably have all the information that the tech commitee had when making their decision. There are a lot more factors to take into account than just internet access. I am the I.T. department for a K-12 school. We have fiber to the desktop in about half of our building. The rest of the building has fiber connections, but we are still using CAT 5 for the network. BTW, I do have a bit more than a couple of Cisco classes under my belt. You mentioned that the network was mostly 10mb hubs, etc. Okay, I can see your point of moving to switches, that's a good move. However, what kind of cabling do they have and how old is it. Maybe they're using CAT 3 currently and need to run new cable anyway to transition to 100/1000 mb. At that point, I would seriously consider fiber as an alternative. The fiber will have a longer life, is stronger and less prone to EMI. You can also install longer runs with fiber, which offsets the cost of secondary wiring closets and additional switches. Remember, wiring is an investment. A little extra effort upfront can reap huge rewards down the road. Maybe they don't need the bandwidth right now, but who's to say that they might need it in a year for some sort of video conferencing, or streaming video feeds? My fiber lines are 7 years old, but I don't foresee having to replace them anytime in the near future (5 - 10 years).
That is something that needs to be done by someone who knows how to teach. This also means that simply installing new tech and showing the teachers how it works is not enough. Money has to be budgeted to provide real curriculum integration. Money to is needed to provide training, and to get the teachers to attend the training.
Unfortunately from what I've seen during this era of budget cuts, these integration inservices seem to be getting slashed early on. Worse yet, when they are offered, they are after hours and teachers aren't willing to attend... even for a stipend.
We have a very good tech infrastructure in our schools and a lot of tools that our teachers could use. Unfortunately only a handful know what's available, know how to use it, and know how to fit it into their curriculum correctly. The worst ones try to make the computer be a teacher instead of using it as just another tool.
I'd be interested in hearing what other schools have done about these training issues.
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One of the weird things for me is to visit schools in California and the principal, time and time again, walks up and says: "Let me show you my wonderful computer lab." There are rows and rows of Apple Macintoshes, and PCs. My first question is not: How fast are they, or how many are there? My first question is: What did this computer lab used to be? The answer is telling: "Oh, this room? It used to be the music studio, but we don't teach music here anymore." "This computer lab? Oh, this was the art room. We don't teach art." "This multi-media system? This used to be the library, but we got rid of the books and installed computers."
Quote-Clifford Stoll