I’m a concerned mother, grandmother, teacher. I only have a flip phone because I’ve seen what the iPhone has done to my kids and kids. I’mseeing Schools spend precious $$ on bad tech products. Public needs to know about ”personalized (NOT) ed” replacing teachers.
I don’t want to see tech replace teachers, and I can’t see how it would. Customization and teacher-student conversation will always be needed. My son experienced resistance to using tech in school, which I had to fight for given his learning differences. There has to be a balance. It’s important to understand context, and how to skim and scan when reading–but they’re often not teaching these skills so much as expecting them. That makes it easier for many kids to learn through video, and watching video with subtitles is common from what I’m seeing. It’s often how they’re reading and getting exposed to tech products.
One thing I’ve learned is that schools have cut librarians, who used to teach media studies and how to use tech (back in the “advance the filmstrip one frame when the cassette tape narration is interrupted by a beep”). Teachers don’t have time, and often don’t have training, to teach these topics and skills. Where can a kid learn them? From a parent…or online!
Nancy, what I am seeing here in Maine is 1to1 chrome books and iPads for all our students—in my district down to the 3rd grade. No training for the teachers about integrating them. Just using them to read and answer electronic worksheets. So, either they are really being used to teach our 8 and 9 year olds to type because our federal tests are all online or they are being used get our students ready for Maine’s competency based diploma. CBD is mastery (personalized-NOT) learning—all assessment all the time—which can really only be accomplished with all computers all the time “learning.” Btw, almost all the PD for the past three years has been how to enter student data, not on using tech creatively.