Tech in schools proving useless

[micropage7]

Kids aren’t getting smarter It appears that all efforts to bring shedloads of tech to every classroom are failing to justify the expense. Paper-less classrooms, internet access and networking have been a craze for years. However, educators are now complaining that the influx of tech did not do much to improve test scores or justify the immense expense of upgrading education.

Since 2005 test scores in the US have seen a sharp decline and tech isn’t helping. Schools are spending a lot of their budgets towards improving tech standards, making sure that every student has a laptop and proper internet access, even at the expense of traditional teaching methods. The approach, claim some, is showing no dividends.

www.fudzilla.com/home/item/23961-tech-in-schools-proving-useless
so its not like most people expected. tech not make students smarter

 

[Frick]

I really wish you took some time editing the news you post.

 

[sneekypeet]

I really wish you took some time editing the news you post.

I did!

 

[Frizz]

I wouldn't think it would improve their math skills etc. unless it was at areas where the tech they are given for use while in school is the actual topic for their study. I know it will help less fortunate students with graphics design, software development etc. as not everyone is blessed with more than one PC at home in a family of 4 or more.

 

[btarunr]

Hedonism is eating to western kids. Cut their facebook/smartphone/fancy-clothes BS. Reintroduce school uniform code, reintroduce corporal punishments, reintroduce mark/rank-based merit assessment system. Problem solved. What western educators are doing is the exact opposite. They think drenching kids into unregulated technology that can entertain more than educate and liberalising school life will somehow make kids smarter. No! It will make them hedonistic at a very young age. It will put them on path to an unsustainable life.

 

[PHaS3]

I am the IT Manager of a private school in South Africa. We have seen an improvement the quality of content, both supplied for to the kids and produced by them, since we have installed PC's and data projectors in every classroom. The problem is that some teachers are too scared or intimidated by the tech to use it correctly or incorporate it into their lessons.

I think that as much as technology can help or hinder education, it is up to the people using it to be motivated and think outside the box when delivering their lessons. Technology itself cannot be blamed for not succeeding when it is not used at it's intended capacity.

At our school, we try to teach the staff as well as the kids to use technology to its full potential. I, for example, will be teaching the kids about smartphones and their uses soon, in order for them to learn that smart phones are not solely for "shits and giggles" but can be a great tool in everyday life.

 

[Frick]

I think it's more a sign that US schools are failing than more tech not helping.

 

[MilkyWay]

Corporal punishments are cruel, a child who struggles needs help not just beating into submission.

@ btarunr - You put a lot of people into the same category which is very unfair, the United States of America is very different to European education and different individual countries in Europe have different education standards and policies. Scotland and England are both part of the UK yet the school systems had different curriculum and qualifications.

I grew up going to a Catholic primary school and high school, all Catholic schools in the UK are state run the only difference is the religious education; i wore a uniform and i actually support the use of a uniform, i also believe i benefited from technology eg. projectors, electronic presentations, being able to use computers to do research, ability to type up my essays, video. Sure most of the time we used paper jotters/notebooks to work with and textbooks but i am sure children benefit very much from the use of technology in schools but it really depends on how and where its used (application of said tech). For example throwing tech into a maths classroom for the sake of having technology in the class doesn't necessarily work, where as in history class the use of video or presentations in business management classes works.

What you are suggesting is that so called "westerners" i hate that term but yes you imply "westerners" have a very hedonistic culture which i find insulting. I find every individual has their own take on life. I find it insulting to group cultures together i find it also insulting when people from the UK stereotype towards other groups.

Over here students are able to use public library's or the school library's to get access to computers.

I personally think that the use of technology in the school should only be used where it can show significant benefits to the students rather than just using stuff for the sake of it. At least when i was in school we never had anything that was useless or could be similarly done in another form.

 

[micropage7]

I really wish you took some time editing the news you post.

sorry for that. i posted using my phone.
next time would be better

 

[FordGT90Concept]

"Tech's" sole purpose is to make life easier. That tends to mean people know how to tell a computer how to do something but they don't understand what, exactly, the computer is doing. Computer use, as such, tends to make people more productive but dumber. Schools are all about un-dumbing the population so, unless they're teaching how to use (the basics like internet use, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. as well as programming) and/or maintain a computer, they're not helping the school's objectives.

 

[MilkyWay]

Tech is about teaching in a different way, its about how you utilise the stuff.
Tech doesnt just boil down to using a pc or laptop. It can be video or using a projector or electronic board. Without tech you wouldn't be able to write up and print worksheets to give to a class easily.

 

[insane 360]

i think its more the fact that public schools forget to teach students critical thinking skills.

have a math problem, here have a calculator, i don't care that it's 2+2...use the calculator.

since "no child left behind" has started its all been about getting test grades up, so they teach students how to test, not how to think...

you can see how well that mindset has worked out for us.

i think tech shouldn't be introduced as a method for doing everything for the students and really shouldn't be an issue until middle school/high school so that the children have a base of critical learning and thinking to build upon

 

[MilkyWay]

WELL in Scotland you get separate non calculator paper and a calculator paper in the maths exam, Intermediates and Highers.

Like i said different places different education.

 

[Kreij]

Using presentation devices in a classroom as a teaching tool has been around for decades. For instance, showing a historical documentary (movie) and then initiating discourse to get the students thinking, or using overhead projectors.

Tech for the sake of making things easier for the students should not be used unless the student(s) can prove they can accomplish the same task without the device.

Just my opinion.

 

[Arctucas]

I believe that the issue is one of laziness; not so much much on the students part, but rather the teachers.

The teachers here in the U.S., since the institution of the the Department of Education by Jimmy Carter, have, in my opinion, gained such a sense of entitlement as to become less instructor, and more overseer. I believe they are more interested in furthering their own well-being, and their agenda of social engineering, and are less interested in actually educating.

Furthermore, I contend that said teachers see technology as a convenient tool to placate and dull the impressionable minds of youth.

As to corporal punishment, MilkyWay, I do not believe anyone suggested, 'beating into submission' those less capable. But rather that the lack of discipline, and thereby the fact we are teaching our children that actions have no consequences, is the root cause of the blatant lack of self-responsibility and the sense of self-entitlement we are witnessing.

No, technology is merely a tool. And as with any other tool, when it is misused, the results are not as initially intended.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yeah. I blame Jimmy Carter!

 

[micropage7]

i remember one of my friend. she use to be bright in mathematics but since the teacher use 'interactive tech' she said it makes her not understand at all
thats kinda sad where it changes how we learn, we aint gonna hear teacher explaining much anymore, less writing on white board anymore, all we get just from cd and we just watch it like watching movie
sad. sad

 

[Kreij]

When I was working on my degree is electronics, we could use calculators to verify our results, but we still had to show longhand how we accopmlished it on the test. You could not just fill in the answer.
You either knew what you were doing or you failed. There was always help available from either the teachers or the teaching assistants (which I was one).
The drop-out rate was unbelievable. We lost 50% of our class in the first 3 months. 130 started, 30 made it to final graduation.
People were getting free money to go to school and did not have the basic math skills to even understand the simplest electronic formulas (like Ohm's law). When we hit RF electronics we lost almost another 50% of those who were left. :/

 

[assaulter_99]

How can it help kids when at the first hurdle, a serious question, they are gonna www.google.com or www.wikipedia.org? As great as it is, technology, if not used right, will only make us dumber. When I was kid, I'd read countless books, reports, news and the rest to get the maximum info in my head. Whenever I was challenged, I'd go deep down into my brain to get the answer. Seems it ain't the case nowadays. A good read on the subject is "Is Google Making Us Stupid?: What the Internet is doing to our brains".

 

[Kreij]

The internet is a huge "reference book", but if someone does not take the time to learn something for themselves, and apply it, it will not make them suited to do something they simply read about.

Case in point. I read up on replacing the shaft on my Stihl weed whacker. Yay, it's really easy.
I still can't get the !@#$ thing working right.

 

[assaulter_99]

The internet is a huge "reference book", but if someone does not take the time to learn something for themselves, and apply it, it will not make them suited to do something they simply read about.

Yeah thats the point. The internet is a great tool, if used wisely, not lazily. It has saved, me for instance, thousands of bucks (even though I pay my internet, so it kind of negates it ) and time on books or other stuff I'd have to buy and wait to buy, cause nowadays, everything is a couple of clicks away. (compared to having an eureka moment and wanting to go deeper but having to wait for a friend, colleague or a bookstore/library to open)

 

[HossHuge]

Okay, so let me see if I've got this right.

Kids are getting dumber
The Earth is getting hotter
And dirtier
The space around the Earth is getting dirtier
More and more animals and plants are becoming extinct
The oceans are becoming emptified (just made that word up)
The population keeps expanding
more and more people are starving
Countries are spending more than ever on arms
Am I missing something?

Right now I wondering why I brought kids into this world.

 

[micropage7]

google wikipedia and others help us to find anything
but sometimes it makes us get lazy to remember. wanna look for it? just google it
how many homeworks that just from copy paste and del and thats the fact where technology at certain level just give bags of side effect

 

[Kreij]

@Hoss : You brought kids into this world because they are the single most precious thing you will ever have. You will teach them life is not fair and they are going to have to work and fight for what they feel is right, and you are going to watch them grow-up and become self-sufficient.
When you watch them leave the home to follow thier own dreams, you will be more proud of them than anyone without children could ever imagine.
There is nothing else like it.

 

[qubit]

Corporal punishments are cruel, a child who struggles needs help not just beating into submission.

Whether it's right or not depends on the application in my book.

It's bad if: the child is well behaved, but not getting good grades for whatever reason. There's usually any one of a number of underlying reasons, such the rather general "learning difficulties", emotional problems (broken home, bullying etc), dyslexia, genuinely lower intelligence (how the hell do you measure this one fully objectively?!)

Corporal punishment applied in this scenario is indeed cruel, sadistic, unnecessary and should be treated as assault.

However, it's absolutely perfect for: bullies, classroom disruptors* and general bad behaviour including lack of respect for teacher's authority and all the problems that go with it. Sure there can be some cases where the kid's got issues and these should be checked out first, but frankly, it can be pretty obvious when the kid is just being a little shit, so yeah, corporal punishment is very appropriate for these people.

As BTA didn't qualify his use of corporal punishment, I can't say which use he's referring to and I'd be interested to know. I generally agree with his general ethos of installing discipline in the little buggers though.

*Sounds like some deadly sci-fi weapon, doesn't it?