Digitizing Classrooms a Smart Idea
More New Jersey schools bring technology to students' fingertips.
The Morris School District is giving 400 iPad2s to middle schoolers next month; extending a pilot program that begins at the elementary level.
This keeps them on the cusp of an education movement in which a growing number of districts in New Jersey, including Parsippany and Hillsborough, and across the nation are slowly giving students access to cutting-edge technology.
The trick is ensuring the devices are put to maximum use for student learning. That’s not easy.
For one thing, the typical pre-adult knows more about apps—including the very non-educational Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Temple Run and thousands of others—than the typical teacher.
For another, technology continues advancing so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up with the volume of changes intellectually and financially.
The Morris School District is using $190,000 in school choice money to buy and insure the devices. They will be the best technology until Apple rolls out iPad3 or another company’s device one-ups them in probably a year, two if they’re lucky.
Schools, like regular folks, have grappled with the same problem in keeping their desktop computers up-to-date. There are still a few stray Windows 95 PCs out there booting up at a snail’s pace and a student who could look up a definition in a dictionary faster than his web browser loads the page is not benefitting from the technology.
It’s expensive to keep current and with the economy continuing to stall and tight caps on spending, schools don’t exactly have the money to keep buying new equipment.
The other problem is how teachers and students use the devices.
It used to be that the computer instructor taught students how to use a computer. Now the students can teach the teacher how to use the tablet.
A district that makes the investment in giving every student a device, be it an iPad, a mini notebook or something similar should ensure that the kids are using them appropriately, which is challenging in itself, but also getting the most out of them.
Teacher training programs are constantly having to update to best prepare new instructors how to use technology in the classroom. Veterans still far outnumber recent education graduates and it takes more than a daylong in-service to get a technophobe who feels comfortable with a bound text and a lesson plan book to revamp his teaching methods.
It’s going to take a complete overhaul of what happens in the classroom to keep education relevant for today’s learners.
There are apps for the preschool set. By the time they graduate from elementary school, most students at least have a cell phone, if not a Smart phone. A 2009 survey found that more than half of all teens texted their friends and a quarter visited a social networking site like Facebook daily; those percentages are undoubtedly higher today.
Savvy youth today can and do get instant answers to questions using their Smart phones. When middle school teachers took their recent graduates to a morning news show concert over the summer, the teens provided their instructors with information about the performer on the spot—she’s battled an eating disorder, substance abuse and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder all before age 20.
They snapped photos and tweeted them, using the hashtag promoted by the show. They reported that they had, indeed, been "on TV," having received text and email messages from parents watching at home.
This is the mindset of today’s student and teachers need to work most effectively with it, cultivating and expanding on what young people already know and do best, while at the same time teaching those who don’t already know or can’t afford the most recent technology.
There is a digital divide, which is why sending devices home with students can be an important equalizer. As long as the students are not running up airtime playing Draw Something online with friends.
The New Jersey Department of Education has set an eventual target of one-to-one availability for students and set as a goal that "All students will be prepared to meet the challenge of a dynamic global society in which they participate, contribute, achieve, and flourish through universal access to people, information and ideas."
A major goal of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2010 Technology Plan involves providing every student with tech access 24/7 and incorporating devices into education in the same way workers use computers and the Internet today.
Two new “virtual” charter schools are opening in New Jersey this year. Like Morris, other schools are piloting programs designed to meet education officials' goals.
Change can be difficult, and expensive, but all districts need to revolutionize the way they teach—the way students learn—to adapt to today’s high-tech realities to keep young people engaged, give them the skills and knowledge they need and best prepare them for a productive future.
Bob
11:56 pm on Sunday, August 19, 2012
Don't even waste the money, the older generation was never dependent of technology like this ... Good idea with iPads let the kids play games and be on Facebook while they are in class because that's exactly what will happen..... What a waste of money
clyde donovan
12:01 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
What are the $$$ amounts of the kickbacks from Apple to members of school systems who decide to buy hundreds of iPads?
Tom Hantson
9:41 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
This is not an intelligent response. Trust me Apple does not have to give kickbacks to sell their products.
PJ_Wolf
6:15 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
Why not just simply have the teacher run an IPAD simulation on the front smartboard? One IPAD, same experience, less potential for misuse.
James P. Page
7:22 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
Seems like the next skill kids will lose to technology is how to use a Pen or Pencil.
concerned parent
7:58 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
The Pascack Valley area has been giving kids laptops for their school work for years. At the end of the year, the kids return them, and the memory gets wiped out for the next year. They block games, etc, and can check content if there is a concern. All of their work is done on the computer. In Montville, my children aren't allowed to bring a computer to class...even if it's their own. This doesn't prepare them for the workforce or college, where everything is done on a computer. The Pascack Valley area has no more money than this area. I guess they just give education a higher priority.
clyde donovan
12:06 pm on Monday, August 20, 2012
Giving a kid a laptop isn't education. It's a waste of taxpayers' money and a way for the school system power-and-control freaks to snoop on children. Kids in India who go to school without shoes and with zero technology are probably testing better in math and science than of the precious spoiled sweethearts in Mortville and Pascak Valley.
Most American kids use computers at home and by the time they're in third grade they're doing more with computers on their own than their parents do at work.
Tom Hantson
9:50 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Mr. Tabor
I applaude any education system which users technology to prepare our children for the future. You need to know how to use technology today for business and to repair today's cars. If the young generation does not know how to use new technology they will fall behind.
Save taxes
9:00 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
http://www.carpediemschools.com/
Until we can do what the school above does its a complete waste on money. This will never happen in Nj because the teachers unions would have a fit! That's why out tax dollars are out of control. The link above is a school that did it right.
Ara Barsamian
9:42 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
How about making sure that the students learn and excel at math (learn the multiplication table) and can write decently (in English)?
Tablets and computers provide "instant gratification" feedback. This is not a substitute for effective teaching of the basics. High-tech gizmos and being proficient at Facebook and twitting does not necessarily insure this...ranking 37th world-wide in science and math tells us something about our priorities...
Hugh
10:35 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
There is no peer reviewed research proving the value of technology in the classroom. The Silicon Valley elite send their children to Waldorf Schools where no technology is permitted. The number one skill set required for academic and career success is the ability to read, write and speak English at a high level.
The leaders of the future will have the same skills as those of the past. They will be able to read and understand a broad range of long-form written material. They will be able to write cogently, lucidly and at length, and they will be able to make compelling oral presentations.
These leaders will hire technologists to manipulate whatever machines are required to advance their organization's interests.
Shakespeare wrote with a quill pen. Lincoln only made 26 speeches as president. The most important words are chisled in granite.
Our youth is not suffering from a lack of web access, technology or computer literacy. They are, and they always will be in advance of their teachers, and whatever machines the districts buy will always be behind the technological curve almost immediately. 20 years ago there were unused Apple II's all over American classrooms. These tablets and laptops are a distraction from the sad lack of general knowlege and evident inability to communicate so common among American students.
g
7:43 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
You mentioned Shakespeare and Lincoln who achieved greatness. They achieved greatness even with a limited education. William Shakespeare finished his formal education at the age of 14. Lincoln himself stated that he had about one year of formal education.
Both men had great innate intellect. Measured by today's IQ test they would have scored in the top 25%.
The most of top 50 % of the population will have little problem learning . Unfortunately, it is most of the lower 50% of the population who needs the he greatest teaching help.
Unfortunately, this is where teachers seem to fail. More money hasn't helped. What is needed are outstanding dedicated teachers. Unfortunately, there are so few of them.
According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 42 million adult Americans can't read; 50 million can recognize so few printed words they are limited to a 4th or 5th grade reading level; one out of every four teenagers drops out of high school, and of those who graduate, one out of every four has the equivalent or less of an eighth grade education.
Will computers help the lower 50% of the population?
clyde donovan
11:56 am on Monday, August 20, 2012
If you're talking about the digital age, then why don't we take it all the way. Why do we need incompetent teachers in the classroom? Lessons could be broadcast into the classroom via the internet and big-screen TVs. The best, brightest and most successful educators in each subject area could teach from a national media production studio. The classrooms could be supervised by a security guard/teaching assistant a fraction of the cost of an alleged teacher.
g
6:24 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
n the last 10 years in Australia, literacy and numeracy levels have fallen consistently despite the fact that in that time we have populated our schools with as many computers as there are students. This negative correlation is not scientific proof that the introduction of computers has caused this drop in standards – but it definitely does show that computers have NOT helped all our children become better at reading and maths.
Gary
7:22 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
I have to defend the use of technology in the classrooms. In order to prepare students for college in the 21st century, technology is vital. In order to compete with the rest of the world, we have to advance technologically as well as with academics. Students in our school are taught to be able to research using appropriate tools and search engines, how to use technology to make presentations which are a vital skill in both college and the workplace. They will be prepared to meet the demands of the workplace when they graduate. The idea that technology has no place in education is preposterous in today's society. Also, most of the students from our school are accepted into excellent schools with honors classes.
Tom Hantson
10:18 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
I second your comments.
Brad Britland
11:50 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Technology is taking us to an enlightened state of knowledge management. The internet is what enables a whole new level of knowledge sharing. Having an internet enabled device may lead to unintended consequences but if they can disable the internet in the iPad and use it simply for teacher / student interaction then it has the potential to revolutionize the way our children learn.