Just a couple comments on MLK school in Utica distributing netbooks to all students
First, they can be a distraction from the essential learning that must take place in the elementary years. One school district in the Syracuse area already tried something similar with laptops, and abandoned the project.
Second, they are conditioning students to become dependent on electronic media for their knowledge rather than print media. Electronic media can be easily changed as anyone familiar with "find and replace" commands in writing software can attest. Are we setting up our children for government manipulation?
9 comments:
A little less conspiracy theory...
We waste millions on school education. From obscene salaries for administrators and their support staff, to non-academic forays such as cup stacking, not a single penny is spent on actually teaching and making sure the students retain the knowledge. Rather than spend money on netbooks for students to play games on during class (a perk that should be left for college students ONLY), let's see more of it put toward educating our students. So much is wasted on "feel good" programs, like this and students still graduate high school incapable of: speaking or writing proper English, doing basic arithmetic, time management skills, team work, sophisticated thought, understanding of American government or politics, knowing basic science, etc.
Ridiculous waste of money in my opinion. I was the Technology Director for a small mountain school district some years ago and resisted the use of laptops. Security nightmare (theft), no proven value, educational goals can be met by desktops or texts. When a teacher asked for laptops, I asked for his or her course objectives annotated to show which objectives were enhanced by a laptop over other means. None came back for a second appointment.
No, I don't think we're being set up for "government manipulation". But what we do have here are a bunch of overpaid administrators that are clueless when it comes to educating students. More than likely this was grant money for the laptops. So, the school board & the "experts" with a mentality that says "gee, let's try this & see if it works", approves it. Another waste of time. A year from now we won't hear anymore about this program, as a newfangled approach to education will come down the pipe.
So much of what our levels of government spend tax money on is based on the feel good, sound good standards noted above. And heaven forbid we should ask for anything like a cost/benefit analysis.
This program will be another opportunity to experiment with students that are in the most need of a TRUE education. Instead the district is providing students with another distraction . This program will end up on the increasingly growing pile of educational junk .
Not teaching children to use the tools of their generation because we didn't use them in our own education is like not letting the boys in shop when I was in high school use power saws or electric drills because their fathers didn't use them instead of teaching them to use the tools they would be using in the real world.
This isn't shop -- its elementary school. Besides, the netbooks will be out-of-date in 3 years anyway. Teaching technology with a short shelf life is a waste of time . . . especially when it distracts from giving the students the tools they will need to teach themselves when they are out of school.
You are correct that those particular netbooks will be out of date in no time, but the basic idea of using technology to store, access, and use information will remain. I know that children need to learn to use and rely on their own minds. Paper and pencil stuff is important but we live in a world where technology is a fact. Those children who are the least likely to become comfortable with the tech tools of today because they live in households not able to provide them with exposure to new technologies are the ones who most need to be exposed at school. If the netboooks are used to supplement instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic and expose the children to new ways to use the skills they learn, they will be more prepared to live in the world they will have no choice but to live in.
Where will it all end? The logic of providing materials, goods, etc., to those students whose families can't, or won't, provide them is endless. Are we to seriously believe this is the magic answer to preparedness? Is all we do now inadequate only to be recued by more technology at more cost? What ever happened to teaching others to think?
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