more on Computing technology in our schools

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Warlick <dwarlick () mindspring com>
Date: July 3, 2006 12:21:31 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Computing technology in our schools

Dave,

I think that this is a very important conversation.  Coincidentally,  
the National Educational Computing Conference is taking place this  
week in San Diego.  You can hitchhike the conference at: http:// 
hitchhikr.com/index.php?conf_id=13
-------------------------------------------------

Tom,

At the same time that I would advocate even more investment in  
modernizing classrooms, I have to agree with almost everything that  
you say.  Technology has been poorly implemented in many schools.   
Teachers have not been trained to use the technology appropriately,  
and when the have, they are not given the time to reflect and to  
effectively integrate these new tools into their instruction.

I would also agree that too often decisions on hardware and software  
purchases are based on marketing efforts by tech companies, and  
district officials who are more technologist than educator.  I agree,  
also, that though there has been some evidence of improved learning  
when students use new technologies as an instructional tool, the  
evidence is far from overwhelming.

That said, I believe that technology is not the issue with education  
today.  The issue is that education is challenged today to prepare  
its students for a rapidly changing time, where, for the first time  
in history, we can not clearly describe the future we're preparing  
our children for.  Literacy is more important today than it has ever  
been.  But what does literacy mean when information is increasingly  
networked, digital, and overwhelming.

I maintain that the un-heeded challenge facing education today is  
that of redefining the basic skills for this new information  
landscape, and then integrating this new literacy into the  
classrooms.  This will require enormous investments, significant  
restructuring, and an entirely new story about the classroom of the  
21st century.  Our kids are very good a playing the technology.  They  
need us to teach them how to work the information.

Anything less and we're just doing a better job of preparing our  
children for the 1950s.

-- dave --

David F. Warlick
The Landmark Project
919-571-3292
For Teachers: http://landmark-project.com/
For Clients & the Curious: http://davidwarlick.com/
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On Jul 3, 2006, at 11:01 AM, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net>
> Date: July 3, 2006 10:28:04 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Computing technology in our schools
>
> Hi Dave,
> [Long post, sorry]
>
> There's a very important issue that I'm concerned about and I'm
> hoping that perhaps you or some of the IP'ers can weigh in with
> their opinion.
>
> The problem I have is with the use of computer technology in
> primary and secondary schools. First, though, is what I love
> about it: teachers can now post grades online and reply to
> questions via email. These two developments make a parent's
> job much easier in many ways.
>
> However, I take issue with the fact that computer technology
> seems to have been sold to school districts with the promise
> that it would either revolutionize teaching or at least help today's
> student to avoid missing out on a good career. The problem,
> as far as I can see, is that the computerization of our nation's
> schools has instead crippled them.
>
> First of all, the quality of the teachers themselves does not
> appear to have increased at all over the past 20 years. In fact,
> I have seen many useful teaching methods (e.g., diagramming
> sentences) dumped over this same period because they were
> deemed "inappropriate" in some way (too hard?). Few teachers
> are savvy technologists and most have little understanding of what
> computers can do in the first place, let alone leverage them  
> effectively
> in the classroom. At best, the quality of teachers is a wash.
>
> Next, we have the increased reliance on computers. For example,
> my daughter's high school actually *required* that every parent
> purchase a $100+ graphing calculator. I hate to sound like a
> fuddy duddy, but I checked out her assignments regularly and
> never once saw any hint of linear analysis or anything that would
> even remotely require such horsepower. Classrooms that use
> computers regularly -- most likely 7-12th grade --put little
> emphasis on writing, printing, drawing, or any other manual
> skill. Composition is still being stressed, but most computers
> now catch spelling and grammatical mistakes so effortlessly,
> that the lesson is mostly lost on the student.
>
> Anecdote: When I was in college, my Composition 101 teacher
> required us to type out our papers on mimeograph paper and he
> wouldn't accept any errors whatsoever. That meant many long
> nights with a razor blade, scraping the ink off of the stencil. In
> retrospect, a very good way to be a careful speller and typist.
>
> Anyhow, the last problem I have is with the cost. While class
> sizes go up and up (a friend of mine had her daughter in a
> kindergarten class that was just shy of 30 kids), the schools
> make more and more budget room for their IT department.
> School districts are cutting art and music classes everywhere,
> while they dedicate funds toward CPU upgrades and network
> support staff.
>
> I am an engineer by trade and the computerization of schools
> seemed, to me, like a no-brainer 20 years ago. I also used to
> agree that teaching basic computer skills is a career-enabler.
> However, the more I think about this the more I believe that
> we, as a country, have fallen into a typical capitalist trap--
> i.e., that we've taken the advice of the IT industry (who is
> selling a product) rather than our teachers.
>
> I know there's a lot of anecdotes out there about how savvy
> the current generation of kids is about technology. However,
> I believe that this is almost entirely a function of their personal
> life (home PC, cell phone, etc.) rather than their education.
> I can safely say that the engineering graduates I've worked
> with since the 1980s to the present aren't getting any brighter.
> Recent graduates that I've talked to in other fields (business,
> liberal arts) seem to confirm this; they didn't care much about
> the technical side of their education and learned most of what
> they need on their own by using email, building websites,
> installing Linux on the family's old PC, etc.
>
> In the end, I think that we, as a nation, have been sold a bill
> of goods by the PC and networking industries. Our school
> districts have probably spent over a billion dollars upgrading
> their institutions with computing technology that is probably
> 10-100x more than what they need, and probably half as useful
> as what they want. Now, taxpayers are starting to vote down
> important referenda that might reduce class size or pay teachers
> more because they can't afford to. Very sad, when you consider
> the money that *could* have been applied here if they didn't
> instead need more PCs just to email around notes for our
> kids' Friday take-home folders.
>
> Please, I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
>
> Tom Fairlie
>
>
>
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