Technology In Schools: Weighing The Pros And Cons

As Google, Verizon, Microsoft and the Department of Education pour millions into providing schools across the nation with technology's newest gadgets -- from laptops to IPads -- the question of what technology actually achieves for our students is still up in the air.

It seems like the United States is counting on technology to revive student performances Stateside. The Department of Education is giving more than $7 million this year (up from $300,000 last year) to fund tech-based learning programs, Bill and Melinda Gates donated $20 million recently to incite a "tech revolution in education" and tech companies have begun teaming up with school districts to open tech savvy high schools in Philadelphia and New York.

Technology indisputably creates opportunities for students around the world, including South Koreans who learn English from lifelike robots.

CNN reports,

"It may be better to have a telepresence robot from a highly skilled teacher than to have just an average teacher in the classroom."

And though students in South Korea boast higher test scores and student achievement than their American counterparts, they're asked to leave their iPods and IPhones at the classroom door, reports Take Part.

Slate reported Wednesday that classrooms in the highest-performing countries worldwide involve little more than a chalk board and overhead projector.

Slate wrote,

School does not have to be grueling to be good. In Finland, the schools have almost nothing in common with the pressure-cooker classrooms of Korea. Finnish students start going to school a year later than American kids, and they do less homework on average. Standardized tests are rare. And yet, in 2006, Finnish teenagers ranked first in math and science among 30 OECD countries. (The United States ranked 25th in math and 21st in science.)

Does technology ultimately help or hinder students in classrooms in the U.S. and abroad? It seems like the verdict's still out.

Comments

[Joel Josephson]

05:02 AM on 10/26/2010

Stupid strategy. It is not the hardware it is the software, i.e. content and how it is used. See European government funded education project for 60 plus examples of how Web2.0 resources are being used by teachers in schools. http://www.web20erc.eu/resources

[MindShiftKQED]

06:11 PM on 10/25/2010

Technology is crucial to giving our students a chance to compete in the modern world -- that's indisputable. But we will always need an inspirational teacher to be the guide, the facilitator, and to engage students. I address this in a recent article on MindShift. http://mindshift.kqed.org/2010/10/tech-or-no-tech-a-great-teacher-is-key/.

[dudervision]

12:53 PM on 10/25/2010

Having taught digital media design and development to both adults and children over the past 15 years, I found that technology in and of itself is not the “holy Grail” that some people propose. I read stories about school districts being given wonderful computer systems and high-speed Internet access but, just give teachers the tools without the training does no good. The key is making sure that teachers know how to use the tools and technologies and integrate them into their classes. With the proper training and understanding, technology is key to any successful school, especially considering modern kits, often called Digital Natives who are proficient in the digital devices of the 21st-century.

[benji85]

09:06 PM on 10/24/2010

How about teaching advanced math and science classes starting in middle school, instead of late high school/early college?

I am going back to university now, and in my calculus class I am seeing so many applications it plays in every day life, from what I do for a living, all the way up through business and medical applications.

[dudervision]

12:56 PM on 10/25/2010

Though bringing higher level math and science to middle school is not necessarily a bad idea, there has been a movement to bring ever more complex and challenging academic teaching to ever lower grades. Even children in kindergarten now have homework. The results of this are not always positive. Check out "Race to Nowhere". Yes, we want our children to learn and be prepared for the challenges they face when they become adults, but we must also avoid being accused of stealing their childhood.

[benji85]

06:39 PM on 10/25/2010

I don't really agree starting it off at that young of an age, but there is no reason that by the time you leave 5th grade that you shouldn't be doing Algebra and Geometry, in middle school, only to be ready for Trig and Calculus by high school. If the higher math and science classes are spread out over the whole school year you don't have to compress those classes and put more stress on the students.

[Sweetheart of Oakland]

09:05 PM on 10/24/2010

As a long-term (20 year) teacher in a large, troubled urban school district, and as someone who has worked with adults and children from grades 7-12, let me attest to the amazing power of technology. I used wikis (free-web-based resource) to teach academic writing with amazing results. Students could easily see and comment on each other's writing, develop an ongoing archive on their own work, including multiple iterations of work, and also recieve written feedback from me, the teacher. There were no pencils to be sharpened every hour, nor any waste of paper, because almost everything was on the wiki, including grammar and spelling rules we learned together from reading each other's writing.

I've also podcasting, video, digital photography and websites like Voxopop to let students record their own voices (after working out the text to be spoken...using the wiki to store their work. I've used Go Animate, another free web-based resource to have students create basic level animations, and I've also seen students with incredibly short attention spans be able to concentrate for much longer periods the same basic content and material, because it is so hands-on and they also like seeing the fruits of their labor and also presenting their work to others. Technology is amazing, although, as noted, it is just another tool, albeit an amazing one, but it still needs a great teacher to work wonders. My .02 cents, adjusted for inflation.

[powerhuff]

07:24 PM on 10/24/2010

WHAT CONS

[Ted Fujimoto]

02:30 PM on 10/24/2010

It's hard to believe 20 years later we are still debating whether technology in schools is good. The debate is focused on the wrong question--it is like debating whether email and personal computers is good for the workplace. Just because you have technology at work doesn't make your company great. How you use your technology to amplify how people work together in highly productive, innovative, and constructive ways makes the difference.

To succeed with life, kids need more than to be able to score high on a math or reading test. They need to know how to work in a team, lead a team, problem solve, research and discern quality of information, communicate effectively, present to audiences, and etc. In everyday life, we use technology to do these things and ideally kids should be getting experience doing these things in school too!

Very few schools do the soft skill stuff well for one simple reason—they don’t use it themselves very well: how can you teach collaboration when teachers don’t collaborate? How can you teach empowerment when the principal and teachers aren’t empowered?

Our country should not be satisfied with tweaking our classrooms and schools around the edges when we are losing nearly half of our kids in K-12 and 50% or more in college.
If you really want to see and contrast what a modern public school classroom should look like, check out this video from New Tech High @ Coppell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj1U3O59oJI

[benji85]

09:08 PM on 10/24/2010

Agreed, I have to do my homework for my physics class on an online platform, but the platform was created in such a way that you have to answer the questions in their format, when there are multiple ways to answer the question.

[dudervision]

12:59 PM on 10/25/2010

There is a heavy emphasis on 21st-century literacy in modern curriculum. How about 21st-century teaching skills? More emphasis should be placed upon what I call the big three: problem-based learning, project-based learning, team-based learning. All too often I see schools define digital literacy is understanding how to use Microsoft Office.

[Sunsang]

01:46 PM on 10/24/2010

Those who have visited classrooms in some of the "third world" countries have observed that classroom is little more than a piece of plywood painted black, and some rude benches maybe under a roof but sometimes under a tree. The teacher has the only textbook and it may be decades old. Students sharpen their pencils with pocket knives and copy word for word from the chalk board. These same children often emigrate to the U. S. and excel.

Computers cannot substitute for human interaction. Yes they have algorithms that suggest which data to present to the child, but the programs assume much. I have watched students learn how to game the software (a "research based" program) and progress to the next level without mastering the material. We decry parents who use television as a baby sitter, then we do the same in the classroom; plop a kid down in front of a another type of television and command them to learn. Use these billions to decrease class sizes. Kindergarten through fourth grade classes should be no larger than fifteen students. All kindergarten through second grade classes should have para-educators. Grades four and five where so many children give up on math should have an emphasis on child mastery of math via thinking about math, inquiry and problem solving using Sparklabs, Labquest, or Geometers Sketch Pad type materials. Teacher training and ongoing support must be a part of the plan.

[YoungWarthog]

09:15 AM on 10/24/2010

What really matters is that students be taught to THINK. Tech tools come and go, and school budgets are incapable of keeping pace with them. To train kids to use certain tech devices is pointless, as those devices will be out-dated by the time the students graduate and are in the job market. Aren't you happy that you learned all about Wang? A well-rounded student who knows how to think will readily acclimate to new and changing tools.

[Derek Luebbe]

06:43 AM on 10/24/2010

It's hard to buck the system to propose new outcomes - standardized tests dictate much of the subjects and skills that the school day must cover. But until we overcome that barrier, I think what we need are flexible applications of technology that promote collaboration, problem-solving and THE APPLICATION OF TRADITIONAL CONTENT in an authentic manner.
Our problem with measuring technology is that many of our current tech applications promote other learning goals that are not measured by metrics that use to call a school effective.

[alan9]

12:47 AM on 10/24/2010

"And yet, in 2006, Finnish teenagers ranked first in math and science among 30 OECD countries. (The United States ranked 25th in math and 21st in science.)"

I'd like to know at what age this was and who was tested....often times these reports use our standardized tests, which everyone takes, to exams that only the college bound students take in other countries.....not exactly the same thing

[Amy Rollins]

01:51 PM on 10/24/2010

I believe they used the PISA test, alan, to come up with this finding. It's a much more comprehensive test than our standardized tests, and much more rigorous. I'm not sure how they choose which US students to take this test, but I'm going to assume students nominated to participate in a test like this would be college-bound.

Here's some links for more info:
http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,3343,en_2649_201185_39700732_1_1_1_1,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment

[Angie Sullivan]

11:13 PM on 10/23/2010

Technology improves all our lives. It is necessary for many jobs and especially future jobs. Even if the technology like computers, ipods, and ipads is just used on an exposure level - this is more use than many of the at-risk students that I teach will have at home. Many of us cannot imagine a life with the Internet but most of the kids I teach but have an active connection at home. If the public schools don't attempt to teach basic technology such as computer/internet use, they are definitely doing many students a disservice.

[been2there]

10:07 PM on 10/23/2010

Computers are tools; they can be powerful tools, but like any other tools, they are only as good as the person using them. Unless we can persuade students to want to learn--for themselves--we will not do well.
On the other hand, once we do make education fashionable, we will have the tools to make the US a real leader.

[MikeElPaso]

09:06 PM on 10/23/2010

Wondering if Expectancy theory put forth by Victor Vroom, professor at the Yale School of Management is discussed in education circles.

[Barry Wilson]

08:48 PM on 10/23/2010

We spend money like crazy on the hardware and demean the teachers responsible for using it by shortchanging the professional development and support to them. We also cast the solution as the machine and the teacher as the problem in our current policies. No profession is given less respect than teachers in our country-- no true in the case of our so-called competitors.