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The Future of Technology in Schools
citking writes "The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is running parts one and two of a three-part series dealing with the future of technology in America's schools. Part one asks whether technology in schools is merely a fad or, as some may argue, a necessity in today's technology-driven society. It raises some interesting points, such as the contrasting the wide availability of computers in schools to the generally limited use among students. Part two goes in-depth about the technology's cost, citing the dependence of grants that are disappearing and the effects of reducing technology staff. For part three you will have to tune in the the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tomorrow."
But the basics my parents learned are more relevant today than ever - reading and writing and arithmatic should be the core studies required for all students. Add in history, language (especially for those of us in the US who think English is the only language), PE and an artistic course and that's a sound core curriculum. All of this can be taught without tech. Teach the buggers how to talk, write, and think.
I love tech and think it can have a place in schools if a few simple rules are followed. Use tech where it makes sense. Make sure the teachers know how to use the tech FIRST. Make sure there is sufficient and appropriate tech for the audience (skip PowerPoint and Word, geez, use a good text editor, who needs all the formatting whizbang crap anyway?). Try and find an IT support person/group that understands education and can communicate with the staff (nothing worse than a locked down desktop just because the IT dept can't be bothered to understand the teacher's needs).
I think it's more important to have teachers who understand their subject, are enthusiastic about it, and love to share that enthusiasm than to have computers for computer's sake.
I also think it's important that we stop adding course load on kids and trim the subject list back to something that is more human AND make the classes a bit longer (I had 1 hour classes when in high school, my kids were down to 45 minutes - how soon before we get to 1/2 hour of McEd?).
Tech is fine when used sanely with a purpose within a larger designed teaching environment. If something has to go, let it be tech in favor or better teachers.
That doesn't address the question at all, namely why students don't use the available computers.
I think the reason is very simple: people like to work in private (thus not at school), with things arranged in their own way (thus at home), and with their own software and settings (which school computers often don't allow).
Whether the computers at school run Linux or Windows, and if they cost three hundred or three thousand dollars is completely irrelevant, except, of course, in cas the computers at school have some software that students need but is expensive for them to have at home. And guess what? Those are the cases where you do see students using the computers at school.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I'm sorry, but I'm fairly certain that these school districts have football teams along with swimming pools, etc. I know of a local school (Manheim Central) who prides itself on having a killer football team. God knows what would happen if one day they didn't have one. My guess is that the funding of the team always manages to get through.
I wonder if these same schools are struggling for a tech budget while sports are funded this way. That would be the first question I'd have for the Racine district (in the article).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against sports in school per se, BUT... I AM against funding non-academic activities over academic ones. What are the priorities for funding here?
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
The essentials of learning, reading (#1), writing (#2), math skills (#3) are still the essentials. Technology is dependent on those skills, not vice versa. Technology can supplement libraries, but must NEVER replace the hard bound word. In my opinion, writing skills are de-emphasized at the altar of tech and speed, with the resultant loss of clear and concise communication and the increase of frustration at communicating thought. Math is an absolute necessity at any level of learning, and most especially at ALL levels of living. Technology, oddly enough, is subverting math skills. How many times have you seen a store clerk struggle with counting change? How many times have you seen a person of average, or even better, intelligence struggle with a simple addition problem when presented with a few numbers and no access to a calculator.
All other modern human activities depend on these three, simple skills. Yet we insist that technology replace, not help to learn, these skills. In elementary school, there should be very little technology presense, other than administrative. In the middle and high school levels (speaking from an American viewpoint), technology should be taught as a tool for research and for recording. It should be until college/university level that technology should become an assistant to the learning process.
Yes, the old "Dick and Jane" readers should be dusted off and used, writing skills with pencil and paper must be exercised, and memory exercises with math tables should be re-emphasised.
The human brain is a marvelous tool, it demands use!