Very rarely do things ever live up to the hype, especially in terms of education where every few years there is a new idea that everyone tries to emulate. The hype of educational technology is a difficult one to breakdown, because it encompasses so much and continues to evolve as technology is continually moving forward. Also, we can not merely hope technology will be the solution to save the U.S. education system or the achievement gap as raising standardized test schools universally. The best educational technology can be ineffective if placed in a learning community that is not properly trained or does not use it properly. Unsuccessful products are being sold alongside those that are conducive to the learning process, so what happens to those unfortunate districts that buy useless technology and are stuck with it until there are funds to replace it. Or worse, teachers becoming dependant on the technology to do their jobs for them, and lose the motivation to be creative and invigorate the minds in front of them.
Educational technology offers a lot in the way of assisting all levels of education from the district offices to the students, yet is all of this technology able to take the place of traditional classroom learning? My immediate response is an emphatic no, because I believe that a blended learning model is best. Some of my greatest learning moments have come while outside of the classroom and far from educational technology, unless you count the bus that got me there. As a kinesthetic learner, exploring historical sites or visiting museums had much more value for me than looking it up on a computer. Experiences can be much greater teachers than anything technology can do for us, though it is useful. Not everyone has the fortune to be able to take field trips or give their students the experiences that others have. As a high school educator I feel it incumbent upon myself to prepare my students for the next part of their lives, while teaching my content material. Technology is an enormous part of our society and the way we live our lives, therefore as educators we must equip our students to the best of our abilities with the tools that we have at our disposal.
Ultimately, as educators we must use educational technology, but it is our responsibility to govern ourselves and use it appropriately. We must find the technology that best serves our learning communities needs, and use it to aid in the teaching process and not control it. As educators, it is our duty to teach to the whole student and I do not believe educational technology can do that. The more technologically integrated we become as a learning community, the less human interaction we have with one another.
Comments
Is Educational Technology worth the hype?
YES!
Education cannot grow without absorbing the onslaught of available technology. Countless companies offer amazing products for education. Bureaucratic red tape, financial cuts to school budgets, and the achievement gap are just some reasons why technology has not fully infiltrated education. Recently though, the paradigm has changed. Schools will now be shifting to online testing software which will be mandated by the (SBAC) Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. As a result, schools are starting to shift funds to build and create the infrastructure required by these mandates. Proposition 30 will liberate funds for such ventures. An example of this is using the curriculum categorical funds to pay for online textbooks versus hard bound textbooks. Another contributing factor to the paradigm shift is using the funds or grants like race to the top to purchase the hardware to support the software. It is also leading to major shifts to school wide policies such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where school can allow students and teachers to access school networks using virtually any type of personal electronic device.
The ideal situation for every student is an individualized education plan. This has been impossible for a variety of reasons not the least of which is having the resources to make the plan. New technologies are presenting student data faster than ever which allows schools to respond to students needs in almost a real time scenario. It also allows schools to present alternative educational models such as distance learning programs to meet the needs of students who would like to recover credits, accelerate their learning, work at their own pace, or are on independent study. Further, social networking sites like Edmodo allow the classroom to extend beyond the four walls of the structure and enable students and staff to communicate virtually, 24/7.
However, these technological shifts are leading to a problem that is more significant than lack of devices to access the internet: bandwidth. As more and more school services move to an online based or network based platform the older infrastructure is needing replacement. Even more, schools need to up the bandwidth running to the schools in order to accommodate the increased network traffic. The state superintendent has advised a minimum of 20kbps per student in order to facilitate the SBAC test. This means for even a small school of 800 the school would require a 16Mbps line to facilitate the test. Currently my school site has only 10Mbps, which in two years we would have to just about double the bandwidth to facilitate the test. Obviously it is financially difficult to double ones’ bandwidth. In order to push out the bandwidth to the classrooms might also require an upgrading and replacing of all routers and switches.
We are moving in the direction of deep embedment of technology in schools, however it will challenging to provide the infrastructure to afford it!