Technology: thoughts?
An AZ school is planning on nixing all textbooks and going totally wireless.I have had lenghthy discussions in the past about this idea, and I'm curious to hear some other opinions before voicing my own.
So, thoughts on the matter?
posted by Schna @ 10:27 AM
4 Comments:
Good question!
My thought is that the move away from paper is, by itself, pretty meaningless. I mean, it's not the technology, it's what you do with it that really has an impact on learning.
Digitizing school materials could allow for wild student customization, annotation, and connection-making not just within courses, but across the entire curriculum. Or it might not. Depending on what software the school uses, how creative they get with their pedagogies, and what incentives & demands the teachers give and place on their students.
In other words, what I'm most curious about isn't the hardware shift, but rather what training the teachers are going to get, and how committed the administration is going to be to making this work.
i agree that the teachers will have a huge impact on how well this works for the students.
I also think that, for the really young students, the shift won't be as dramatic. However, if it were me, I wouldn't like it. If I have to read something online that is lenghthy, I print it out. It hurts my eyes to read on the computer, I can't concentrate as well, I can't make notes (though the software used by the school might allow for margin notes) or highlight. In general, physically holding the text in my hand seems to assist with my ability to focus on it. Then again, I grew up with paper text (hell, I didn't have a computer until college - i typed all my high school papers on a typewriter!), so it's what I'm used to.
do you think this is the way that all education is generally moving? more of my thoughts on this later....
Supporting technology in an Arizona school system, I can only say that they have some real surprises coming. I understand that this has been tried in a few schools in Maine and Colorado already and the negatives abound!! Damages, theft, support staff, network infastructure, plagarism, distractions, hacking, power usage, etc etc..
Some of our school buildings were built in the 20's. They were never designed for todays technology. We have power issues having three computers in each classroom, along with the microwave and fridge the teacher sneaks in, fans, lights, radios, TV, etc. Schools are not notoriously wealthy (especially considering that AZ is ranked number 50 in educational funding). Are they ready for the expense? We hear all the time that the directors want cutting edge technology. Well cutting edge is darned expensive!!!! Wait until the power bills roll in, the battery replacement at $130 a pop reaches an all time high, viruses go out of control....
I guess I have a strong opinion about this. :) I want the children exposed to technology to prepare them for the future.. I don't want some superintendents idea about technology in the classroom to be about what puts them in the news and makes other schools jump on the bandwagon because someone else tried it.
Not something I had considered directly, though indirectly it has come up in conversation. Basically, the differences between the "wealthy" schools and the rest of the schools will become even greater. With the advance of technology, the divide between the well-funded (read: schools in the wealthy suburbs/private schools) and the rest of the schools (such as most of those in AZ, at the extreme end) is going to become even greater.
This is something that concerns me. There are enough schools out there that don't even have access to up to date textbooks. Sure, having those textbooks online could save the school a lot of money on books, but as Tiffanie pointed out, the expenses to support the technology could very easily break the bank.
I too think there is a lot of promise with the use of technology in improving education, but it's difficult to imagine how it would work outside of an ideal world. In practical terms, is it possible??
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