Education innovator Will Richardson, author of “Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere,” raised an issue in Atlanta today that often divides readers of this blog: the role of technology in schools.
The father of two teens, Richardson said the only place kids can’t take technology out of their pockets and backpack to answer questions is at school.
Speaking at the
(co)lab summit, Richardson said if he offered a free iPad to the first person in the symphany hall audience who could name the cause of the demise of the Gupta Empire, everyone would pull out their technology to check Google.
But, said Richardson, his two teens can’t do that in their school, which “gives them a very different sense of what learning looks like in the classroom and what it looks like outside.”
The problem is that the people creating school policy haven’t had the same experience with technology as his kids and their peers. “They are good people. They care about kids,” said
