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When
I began teaching in Baltimore City Public Schools, I was surprised to find that
my school had no wireless internet access. Additionally, my students visit computer lab once per week for approximately 40
minutes. They computers in our
computer lab are iMac’s, the same computers I used when I was in 2nd
and 3rd grade 12 or 13 years ago. Most of my students do not have internet access at
home, and there doesn’t seem to be a push, at least in elementary school, to help students learn basic computing skills.
The
education reform movement so often focuses on the issues of teacher pay,
evaluation, instruction, and achievement as measured by high stakes
standardized tests. But, what the movement fails to recognize is that the opportunity gap in this country is
about much more than the outcomes on these tests—it’s also about skills. I’m not talking about the skills that a
student learns for a test- I’m talking about technological skills. We can teach our students how to read and
write and compute but if they leave the eighth grade, as so many of the eighth
graders at the school where I teach do, unable to use the technological tools
that they will have to use in any sort of higher education or career, then we
are setting them up for failure.
Aren’t we doing a huge disservice to our students when we can’t provide
them with the tools and teaching that will actually allow them to compete
concretely with their middle class or upper middle class counterparts?
As
the education reform movement grows, I hope that we can have a larger
conversation about the role that technology plays in changing access to
opportunity, and I hope that we can begin to remove some of the structural
barriers that prevent our students from acquiring the necessary skills to
compete in an increasingly technologically driven world.
1 comment:
This post resonated with me, as I have worked in two very different schools, one with lots of access to technology (SMART Boards, computer labs, etc.), and one in which I still use a chalk board and do not have daily access to computers. Even in the school with SMART boards, many were not functional, and there was absolutely no training on how to use the technology. As teachers try to implement meaningful, effective, and efficient educational strategies, I feel as though lack of technology is the single largest barrier between the current situation and the most ideal. The ability to give students instantaneous feedback on daily work and assessment would be an invaluable asset to my teaching experience.
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