A Misguided Use of Money
Ohanian Comment: Paul Thomas offered insight in the midst of hot air and misinformation from the other contributors to this debate. Paul is well worth following on
Twitter (see below).
His post provoked a lot of angry comments. I don't think most of them actually read what he said.
by Paul Thomas
Reforming education in the U.S. often includes seeking new technology to improve teaching and learning. Instead of buying the latest gadgets, however, our schools would do better to provide students with critical technological awareness, achievable at little cost.
We rarely consider the negative implications for acquiring the newest "smart" board or providing tablets for every student. We tend to chase the next new technology without evaluating learning needs or how gadgets uniquely address those needs. Ironically, we buy into the consumerism inherent in technology (Gadget 2.0 pales against Gadget 3.0) without taking full account of the tremendous financial investments diverted to technology.
Technology is a tool to assist learning. School closets and storage facilities across the U.S., though, are filled with cables, monitors and hardware costing millions of dollars that are now