Technology has come to play a huge role in our lives, both
social and professionally. I can’t tell
you how many times during a conversation, usually an argument, that a friend
will pull out their phone to look up a fact on Google. Having a world of information has become the
norm in our social interactions. Long
gone are the arguments over who scored what homerun in which inning, the
answers are just a click away. In the
same thread, technology has become increasingly important in our professional life,
Microsoft proficiency is almost universally required, and some jobs and schools
will require even more out of you then that(because really I have no idea how
to edit a video on my computer).
What struck me as
really interesting in our class on Monday was our conversation about how
inequitable technology can be in the classroom.
Someone brought up that they wanted to assign a research paper in one of
their past classrooms but because there was not universal access to the
internet in all of the students homes lesson time would have to be taken away
to allow the students to research in class.
How unfair is that? That not only are the students missing out on class
time but the students that do have internet at home have much more time
to do the research and probably more experience with the task!
Another inequibility (yeah I’m sure that’s a word) would be
the availability of technology across schools and school districts. I am left to wonder that if too students with
the same academic abilities would be able to compete at the same level in the
job market if one student came from a school district that immersed them in new
technologies and gave them experience with a variety of media while the other
student didn’t have access to these resources.
How do we as teachers take the importance of technology in the real
world into account when we plan our lessons that we give our students the best
possible opportunities.
There are so many differences across schools and school districts when it comes to available resources. Some schools have textbooks that are 20 years out of date, while others get new textbooks every few years. Some schools have classrooms of 40 students, while others have only 20 students per classroom. Some schools don't have enough space or equipment to have sports teams, while others have state of the art athletic complexes that can serve every MHSAA sport there is. With the move toward a more and more tech savvy society, one of the most important resources for schools to have is technology, and just like with textbooks, classroom sizes, and athletic equipment, there are the have's and the have not's. Students who don't have computers at home and attend a high school that has only one computer lab for the whole school will leave with a fraction of the tech skills they'll be expected to have in many of the jobs they apply for. How can this be addressed in schools that don't have the money to provide technology for their students?
ReplyDeleteExactly my thoughts Erin, and unfortunately I have no idea what the answer is. How can we say that students from schools with different technological access are equally prepared for college/the job market. Also these discrepancies across school districts make it had on educating future teachers, if you don't know what technology they will have access to how can you train them to use it?
DeleteI'd like to think the answer to the technological inequity would be in public libraries. Our city certainly has a lot of access to computers, and there are occasional free computer skill classes. But I'm not naïve enough to think that this is the case everywhere - I'm sure that the huge disparities in public schools across different districts is mirrored in their libraries.
ReplyDeleteHaving Computer Science as one of my undergrad majors, I am strongly in favor of bringing technology into the classroom. However, your blog is a great description of the struggles I will have to face. I was fortunate enough to attend a school district that had great computer labs and equipment, but Scarlett has shown me that not everyone is as lucky. There isn't even a computer in our classroom there, and kids are perplexed by our laptops and what we're doing on them, so I"m sure they don't have a ton of exposure at home. But what can we do to help these inequities? I guess one answer could be try to raise the money ourselves, but then do we take those tablets or laptops to every class each year? Do we leave them at a school if we switch schools? I know this comment is just bringing about more questions than answers, but I agree with you that this is a very important topic and one that needs to be thought about. I know I'll be doing a lot of thinking about it throughout the next year!
ReplyDelete