iAmNotAFan

Fixing our broken school system with iSchools? I’m not so sure about that one. If we were to give every student this expensive technology what would the guarantee be that the students wouldn’t damage or break them? To replaces these frequently might not be financially possible.  Another issue with iSchools would be providing technicians to fix problems with the itouches. If the internet crashes or the battery fails, this puts a wrench in the whole school day. This is more time our students are not learning, which is what we are trying to fix. I feel that actually writing notes and homework helps you remember it more than simply typing it or reading over it. I like to be able to hold a book in my hands and turn the pages, not scroll down on a screen to get to the next page.  I feel like students are missing out if we put all their resources in one piece of technology. This limits the students’ imagination.  They should not be forced to use the itouch.  All the money the schools would save on paper they would make up for in maintenance fees and buying new itouches.  All in all, I’m not a fan.

Options of Schooling

This week I got the pleasure of experiencing a kind of tutorial of online schooling. When I first heard we were going to have a speaker talk to us about online schooling I was less than thrilled. My impression of online schooling was that the students didn’t work very hard and the teachers didn’t have to do much. I didn’t love the idea of a class not meeting together for school. After hearing Beth Day talk about how close she was with her students and how much she loved being an online school teacher, my opinion was altered. She knows the stories of many of her students and sets up times to talk with them one on one. This was she can discuss personal or school related problems with all of her students at a time that is convenient to all involved. Beth also mentioned that she would send two of her girls to public school and one to online school if she was to send them at the current moment. Her one daughter currently has a feeding tube and Beth wouldn’t feel comfortable sending her to kindergarten until she was well. I had never viewed online school as a way to protect and help your child, only as a way to shelter your child. The tutorial helped me to see another side of online schooling. 

Oh The Possibilities

To claim that technology will improve student achievement is farfetched in my opinion.  What will improve student achievement are proficient teachers. These teachers can properly teach the students how to use the technology to expand their learning. Once the technology is learned, the students can begin their adventure into expanding their learning techniques. That is how technology will improve student achievement, through good teaching.  Teachers cannot simply throw a new technology at their students and expect to attain marvelous results.

                The article made some great points about technology improving education; however I felt that the article made the assumption that all teachers were going to effectively teach the newest technologies, and all students would have the same access to new technologies. Sadly, this would not be the case. Not all schools can afford the newest technologies, and not all teachers will successfully instruct their students in the proper use of the newest tools and technologies.  With these kinds of exceptions in mind we can make the assumption that properly taught technologies will improve education.

                Technology does open an endless door of possibilities. It’s a part of our culture that cannot be denied. If we equip our students to learn through new technologies, we are giving them an new way of learning that could help them to teach their students one day.