Thursday - Oct 27, 2011
It’s easy to see how reading the daily headlines would lead someone to believe that incorporating technology into education is a vital maneuver in modern education reform. “Technology in the classroom aids in learning,” “Technology sparks learning,” and “Technology changing how students learn” are some of the resounding refrains heard across the news wires, praising the adoption of education technology.
But not everyone is buying into the idea, with some likening the infiltration of computers, tablets, and other mobile devices into the education sphere to a colorful Band-Aid on an unduly large problem.
Take for example the authors of a recently released National Education Policy Center report, one that paints a picture of the failings of online schools due to lack of oversight, lax accreditation, and greedy commercial and corporate interests. With “nearly one in every 50 students in the U.S.” obtaining all or some of their education from online sources in 2007, and 27 U.S. states hosting online schools (which get most of their content and services from five private companies), the report’s authors claim that more must be done to ensure the quality of online education, especially in the face of rapid ongoing change.
At the end of the report the authors make four key recommendations to state legislatures:
1. Authenticate the source of students’ work using in-person exams or more rigorous credentials.
2. Apply fiscal and instructional regulations to K-12 virtual schools, focusing for example on teacher certification status and adjusted accounting practices.
3. Conduct audits to ensure actual costs are reported, providing a more accurate funding system by the state.
4. Create and maintain a list of agencies that give accreditations to K-12 virtual schools, ensuring the accreditation process is vigorous.
The National Education Policy Center’s recommendations are welcomed by many in the education industry, including those who question whether the traditional classroom setting should be hastily abandoned for the virtual school.
“We are concerned that in their eagerness to embrace the virtual school model, policymakers and some educational leaders are overstating its success and ignoring the tremendous advantages a classroom environment provides for students,” said David R. Colburn, director of the Reubin Askew Institute, and Brian Dassler, KIPP Renaissance High School principal, in an opinion piece for the St. Petersburg Times.
“There is no question that technology can be a great asset to students with learning deficiencies and an excellent supplement to classroom learning for all students,” they said. “As the technology is refined and expanded, virtual learning may offer more substantial advantages to students and teachers.”
Despite their optimism, they went on to caution state legislatures and school policymakers about buying too deeply into the hyped promise of the online learning environment.
This line of thinking falls in stark contrast to the methodology of a school in the United States’ Silicon Valley, which is home to numerous technology corporations. Last week the New York Times highlighted the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of many such schools that questions the idea that technology will save the modern classroom.
Far from taking online classes, the Waldorf schools don’t even incorporate technology, focusing instead on more traditional low-tech instructional methods. The fundamental belief stated by the school is that kids will easily learn how to use technology later in life, so why not focus on the more human and engaging elements of personal teaching.
Granted, this sort of take on technology in education seems almost as extreme as one that endorses stuffing every bit of tech possible into a class. Like most things in our lives, approaching some sort of balance seems like a more reasonable approach. The authors of the NEPC report subtly preach this balance by offering realistic suggestions on how to better a growing online education industry, despite believing that same industry has “zero high-quality research evidence” of being an “adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning.”
Even higher education students like Kinsey Streib at Purdue University are being realistic about the role of technology in education.
“Admittedly, some technology inhibits the learning experience,” Streib recently told the Exponent. “However, it is a pertinent teaching tool in modern education.”
In the end, diving head-first into technological classroom solutions — or shunning them completely — doesn’t seem like an appropriate education solution. State legislatures should make some conservative reforms, while at the same time scientists should do more quality research on learning methodologies that include technology. From there we can evaluate in what ways educators can best integrate technology into the classroom and better gauge the effectiveness of privatized online education, all without tripping over ourselves in a mad dash to educational uncertainty.
Photo via popofatticus, Flickr Creative Commons
Thursday - Oct 13, 2011
In August 2008, Mark Mahaney, a leading business analyst with Citigroup, stated “the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world.” He reckoned that the Kindle — Amazon’s highly-popular e-reader — would sell roughly 380,000 units in 2008.
Fast-forward to 2011. Ever secretive of their sales numbers, Amazon is estimated to have sold between 5.4 to 8 million Kindles in 2010, with even larger numbers likely by the end of the 2011 sales year. Even if we use the more conservative number, we’re still talking about 14 times the units being sold a couple of years later. It’s difficult not to translate that to significant adoption of e-books and other digital written content, especially with EPUB-based platforms like the iPad strongly playing in the mix.
Of course, there are plenty of other signs that e-books and e-readers are becoming more popular, especially in libraries and the education sector. Let’s look at a few of those indicators.
1. Libraries: The folks at Library Journal released the results of their second annual Ebook Penetration & Use in U.S. Libraries Survey, and those results tell a story of e-books gaining ground in libraries around the country. According to their results, compared to last year there has been a 10 percent increase in the number of public libraries offering e-books, with a 184 percent increase in the average number of available e-books. Academic libraries saw small increases as well, though not as pronounced as the public realm.
Recent news stories seem to support Library Journal’s survey. Whether it’s high-profile entities like the U.S. Air Force or small local libraries like the one in Lexington, Nebraska, interest in and adoption of e-books at libraries is increasing. “We’re using mobile devices like tablets, netbooks, and smart phones more than ever,” Air Force Services Agency administrative librarian Melinda Mosley told the Air Force. “We’re interested in providing service to our customers anywhere, anytime, in addition to providing face-to-face services at our libraries.”
A similar story is told in the city of Lexington, where Kathleen Thomsen works as the director of the Lexington Public Library. “We have so many people coming in and inquiring about e-books,” she told the Lexington Clipper-Herald. “The new technology is really growing.”
Yet while interest in e-books is increasing, both Mosley and Thomsen paint a similar picture of one of the speed bumps along the way: there’s a learning curve to using e-readers and e-books. In each case the additional component of “how do I use this?” comes into play. The solution is on-site education in the form of “sandbox sessions” and “technology petting zoos,” allowing people from all walks of life to learn how to use emerging reading technologies to read the content they want.
Jim Hahn, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who performed a recent case study on technology and the library, agrees that despite the popularity of e-books and e-readers, educational and utilization-related barriers still slow the march of tech saturation in the library.
“Librarians have a sense that today’s rapidly changing technological landscape should be reflected in the services they provide,” he said in his case study. “But while enthusiasm and curiosity are in abundance in the library technical field, consensus on precisely where and how to merge library-specific expertise and emerging digital tools remains elusive.”
Continue on for three more indicators…
Thursday - Feb 17, 2011
The uprisings in the Middle East have captured the attention of the world, but in the U.S. an equally important protest has also begun to grab headlines. Public servants–teachers, nurses, firefighters and many others–are taking to the streets of Wisconsin to protest pending legislation that will strip away decades of hard-won workers’ rights.
According to Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison…” The congressman has characterized the peaceful demonstrations as “riots”, an attempt to discredit the public employees. But nothing could be further from the reality on the ground.
Wisconsin, like many other states, is having budget problems. The newly elected governor, Scott Walker, a conservative Republican, lays the blame at the feet of state employees. He wants to slash their benefits and pensions and more ominously, he’s proposed legislation that will strip the public employees unions of the right to collective bargaining. Ironically, Wisconsin was the first state to grant collective bargain rights to state employees. (This CNN article analyzes the importance of collective bargaining for the American middle class.)
Some claim that Walker has ginned up the state’s books to exaggerate the deficit so he can use it as a pretext to break the unions, a gift to his corporate backers. According to Wisconsin’s budget office, the state was running a surplus until Walker, soon after taking office, pushed through a series of corporate tax cuts that will add over $100 million to Wisconsin’s budget deficit over the next two years.
Yesterday, a reported 30,000 people rallied in Madison, the state capital, to protest the pending vote. Other demonstrations were held across the state. Larger protests are expected today.
Is this simply an issue of “spoiled” workers trying to preserve their perks or is there more at stake here?
Most of the benefits that American workers enjoy–minimum wage, safe working conditions, the 40 hour work week, paid holidays, sick leave, paid vacation–are a direct result of the labor movement. Union negotiations set the standard and private industry followed their lead.
An attack on unions is really an attack on the beleaguered middle class. State workers–the people that put out fires, teach our kids, respond to emergencies, pick up the trash, repair the roads–deserve thanks, not vilification. Now they’ve been pushed to the edge and they’re fighting back, drawing a crucial line in the sand.
Should Wisconsin’s civil servants lose this battle, it will embolden other states to follow suit; Ohio and New Jersey are watching closely. Can corporations be far behind in demanding more work for less pay? A bill just introduced in Nevada seeks to eliminate the $8.25 minimum wage. Will America compete with China by legally paying workers $2 an hour? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
For all you working stiffs out there, it’s time to take some action. Show your support by joining the Protect Wisconsin Families Facebook page. Follow the breaking news on Twitter. Unions are not the enemy. They deserve our support.
