Teachers Resist High-Tech Push in Idaho Schools

[alp227]

Ann Rosenbaum, a former military police officer in the Marines, does not shrink from a fight, having even survived a close encounter with a car bomb in Iraq. Her latest conflict is quite different: she is now a high school teacher, and she and many of her peers in Idaho are resisting a statewide plan that dictates how computers should be used in classrooms.

Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard.

To help pay for these programs, the state may have to shift tens of millions of dollars away from salaries for teachers and administrators. And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers.

This change is part of a broader shift that is creating tension — a tension that is especially visible in Idaho but is playing out across the country. Some teachers, even though they may embrace classroom technology, feel policy makers are thrusting computers into classrooms without their input or proper training. And some say they are opposed to shifting money to online classes and other teaching methods whose benefits remain unproved.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/technology/idaho-teachers-fight-a-reliance-on-computers.html?pagewanted=all

Requiring online classes, when some students' families can't even afford the internet? And before you argue "if they use Facebook and YouTube all the time why not classes?" keep in mind my previuos sentence. Also given the disgusting relationship between Big Business and the government this law might be just corporate welfare instead of an educational benefit.

[knitter4democracy]

1. What those idiots never consider is the quality of the on-line class.

I've dealt with two of the more popular ones in our state, and they're rife with error, poorly worded sections, and then have the added problem that the student has to be diligent enough to finish it on time. Most don't. The English ones are wretched beyond compare--no writing sections at all (computer can't grade it), arcane terminology no one uses anymore for writing and grammar, reading sections from obscure pieces (as well as little reading required anyway), and yet they can get the same credit for that as for sitting in a real English class and having to actually read and write.

The teachers are right to fight this tooth and nail.

[Staph]

2. I had an interesting discussion with my high school senior niece last night.

For her AP literature class, she was required to create an "illuminated text", basically a Powerpoint visualization of a short story. It's actually a clever exercise, to get the students to break down the story into its most important components, and to illustrate those using Powerpoint.

I asked her what do the students do who don't have computers at home. She said that they do have access to a computer lab during school hours, but that the few days the school lab was available since the assignment before Christmas break meant that there would not be enough time for those students to complete the exercise.

Then she commented that everyone in the AP class had a computer -- that no student's family was so poor that they couldn't afford a computer. It was a kind of 'aha!' moment for her, that the AP students were all the middle and upper middle class students in this mixed suburban/rural West Virginia high school -- that the poorer students would never take an AP course because their family could not afford the extras needed to complete the class assignments.

[CRK7376]

4. While i was teaching high school

I was always leary of telling kids they had to turn in their papers typed/printer because I taught in a rural school system and many of the kids did not have family computers. That was back in '99 but is still relevant today. My daughter's best friend is young girl that will often visit our house to do her papers/projects on our computer as she and her mom don't have a compter. School libraries/media/computer centers and the public libraries are always crowded and hard to get more then 30-45 minutes of time to work on the project....So it is definitely understandable that kids in AP classes are more likely to have computers and those without will be less likely to take AP courses. When I return to the classroom, I will still require papers/research projects, but I will still take hand written projects....my own family didn't get our first computer until 1997.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Possibly good intentions at work, but faulty reasoning.

If you can't think accomplish meaningful work without a computer, a computer won't help you.

[exboyfil]

5. I guess I have a little different attitude towards online classes

My older daughter's online Digital Photography class have been excellent. The expectations are much higher than the equivalent course at her High School. My younger daughter has taken two Biology courses and a Life Science course from the same institution. The expectations are very high (amazingly they actually expect the student to read the text book). My younger daughter has learned valuable study skills from these courses. They have also allowed her to advance two years in Science.

I plan to have my older daughter take 2 Social Studies courses online to satisfy her Junior requirements for graduation while she is a Sophomore and over the summer. I plan to have my younger daughter take 5 Social Studies courses from the same organization (still awaiting approval from the school system). I have to pay for all of these classes. The reason for doing this is to open up their schedules for other classes. I have to say I am less than impressed by the Social Studies education in our school system (so far my older daughter has had only one decent teacher and he was excellent - the rest were mediocre to bad. My older daughter is also getting worn out by the "team" projects (translate you do our work while we mock you for it).

Finally the first year of Engineering is available online in our state, and my older daughter is planning to complete these courses over the next two years of High School. I am going to have to pay for about half of the courses because a "comparable" course is offered at the High School. Well it is not comparable when it comes to credit at the state universities. By skipping her Freshman year my daughter will save approximately $20K - worth more than almost any scholarship and she also strengthens her chance for scholarships I think.