Technology is More Than a Distraction
It’s unsettling to hear that some 90 percent of teachers believe that today’s technologies are creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” Unsettling, not for the fear mongering it conjures about the future of student achievement, but for the belief that technology exposure actually reduces the ability to learn and progress and achieve. Technology is ever-present in our daily lives, and if educators are to train our nation’s youth to compete with their global peers, public perception must move away from the thought that technology is distracting. Increasingly, there are compelling examples of high-achieving classrooms that exist thanks to technology instead of in spite of it.
Take, for example, the San Jose Charter Academy in California, a school highlighted in John Chubb’s new book,The Best Teachers in the World. The K-8 school, which has a predominantly low-income and minority student population that boasts test scores somewhere between “proficient” and “advanced,” adopted a blended learning
Take, for example, the San Jose Charter Academy in California, a school highlighted in John Chubb’s new book,The Best Teachers in the World. The K-8 school, which has a predominantly low-income and minority student population that boasts test scores somewhere between “proficient” and “advanced,” adopted a blended learning