Is There an Ed-Tech Critic In the House?

theodp writes: Educational technology has been stuck for awhile, laments Hack Education's Audrey Watters in And So, Without Ed-Tech Criticism... (an accompanying 1984 photo of Watters making a LOGO turtle draw a square looks little different than President Obama 'learning to code' 30+ years later by making a Disney Princess draw a square). "We might consider why we're still at the point of having to make a case for ed-tech criticism," writes Watters. "It's particularly necessary as we see funding flood into ed-tech, as we see policies about testing dictate the rationale for adopting devices, as we see the technology industry shape a conversation about 'code' — a conversation that focuses on money and prestige but not on thinking, learning. Computer criticism can — and must — be about analysis and action."

Comments

Not just for coding

[spectrokid]

There are many places where it is hard to find good math / STEM teachers. Here in Denmark, my kids make some of their math homework on a website, but it could be SOOO much better. A website which adapts it speed to the pupil, and turns out a nice daily report for the teacher showing where he needs to put focus in class... School is definitely THE area where automation is still in its infancy...

Re:Not just for coding

[laird]

There are companies that make systems that do this. But it takes a long time to make improvements in education in the field. One huge impediment in the US is that every state has its won curriculum and laws regulating what must be taught and how, and decisions are made in a very fragmented and political way (state, city, individual school) so the market is very fragmented with incredible friction, making it an extremely slow business to get improvements not just technically implemented but aligned to state requirements, and through the adoption process. And schools in the US are so test-driven that they typically punish teachers who veer from the approved curriculum and resources, so only a few of the best teachers are willing to try anything new or different. So while there are many people trying to innovate in education in the US, even an attempt requires investing millions of dollars of effort over many years.

While "no child left behind" might sound noble, the way it was written and funded, it's been incredibly destructive to education in the US. It's been tweaked to avoid complete destruction, but schools would be way better off if they were allowed to educate kids to their potential instead of just focusing on getting everyone to pass the test. Because schools now aren't rewarded for kids who excel, they're just punished for any kids who fail, so schools allocated resources to keeping a few kids from failing instead of maximizing educational outcome across all students.

Re:I don't understand the specific complaint

[atherophage]

Until the educators master computer technology all hope is lost. Most teachers in the district I work would be hard pressed to describe the difference between a USB cable and an Ethernet cable. What would a nation of expert coders look like? How many of these citizens would be impatient, diabetic, over weight and myopic; cheap to hire?