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Re: Technology and schools-A Status Report (fwd)
<RANT>
I have seen the use of technology in public schools. Two years ago,
only the richest schools had any sort of access whatsoever to the
Internet, including email. Today, a remarkable number of schools have
access.
But access is not enough. We must ask ourselves what teachers and students
are doing with the technology they have, even if it is "inadequate" and
"obsolete." My point is that in most cases in schools, even if the
computer labs are outdated, the use of this equipment is far from optimal.
If students are doing work on the computers at all (I'll address this in a
minute), they are simply using the computer as a glorified typewriter
(with a couple of different fonts to make their papers look nifty). On
occasion I have seen students using authoring software and even writing
HTML or programming, but these students are usually doing things outside
the standard curriculum; for example, they just happen to know a lot about
computers from home and do their own projects in a study hall.
In many cases, I've seen students use school computers as simply an
entertainment device. In many cases, the only people in a school who know
how to use the school computers to their fullest potential are one or two
gurus who are always found in the computer lab when they are not
teaching/in class.
I'm not making an argument to cut technology funding; however, I am making
an argument that teachers and students should be brought up to speed with
using the computers they have. Perhaps if our state works in computer
literacy in the K-12 curriculum in much the same way as they have math and
English, this problem could be alleviated.
</RANT>
john, bitter ex-teacher
http://sunsite.unc.edu/smiley/
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