The Future Schools of America

            "We cannot cut back on the very investments that will help our economy grow and our nation compete and make sure that these young people succeed.”  These are the words of American President Barack Obama.  This was in regards to the great success enjoyed by the recently established TechBoston school.  The aim of the school is to provide a strong learning environment in the fields of science, math, and technology.  Classes in each of these fields are taken for the full four years there.  Students are also each given their own laptops to help bolster their technology education.

            The school itself is a pilot school in hopes of proving the benefit that a curriculum that heavily involving technology will yield better results.  While the school is still controlled by the district, it enjoys a partnership with many different technology companies including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and Google.  This mix of private and public school elements allows it to operate more like a charter school.

            The statistics regarding the success of the school during its first few years are incredible.  The statistics show, “when compared with others in the district: 82 percent of its students graduate, 92 percent of its first graduating class in 2006 went to college, and today, 94 percent of TechBoston graduates are in college - the first in their families to attend college, for 85 percent of them.”  This shows the impact that technology can have on a struggling school district.  These are what would be the same students and yet almost all of them continue on to higher education.  This figure is higher than most schools in district that achieve well academically.

            Unfortunately, I wonder how easy it would be replicate this sort of success story.  In Obama’s own words, he says, “we'll need a national education policy that tries to figure out how do we replicate success stories like TechBoston all across the country."  The question is indeed how do we do that, how do we take what we have learned from the TechBoston school.  While Obama would continue on to his proposal to add 90 million to the education budget for technology research, we haven’t seen much money swung that way until just recently.  According to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, “Typically, only about 0.2 percent of K-12 funding goes to research and development (R&D).”  A boost in research funding could continue to yield success stories like this one, but I remain reticent and wait for our government to practice what they currently preach.

        The article, President Obama calls for high-tech education solutions while visiting TechBoston, a Boston secondary school lauded for its high graduation rate illustrates how technology can greatly help the world of modern education.  The article’s writer, Amanda Paulson, clearly feels that this is a great thing for education.  I would mostly agree, but the element of commercialism sort of worries me.  I know that commercialism has been a huge part of American education for a long time, but I wish that I could feel that the private companies investing in schools like this are solely hoping to help students.  That could be regarded as a pessimistic viewpoint, but I feel that it must be said.  Other than that, I whole heartedly appreciate the opportunities that have been given to the students of TechBoston and hope that future schools learn to implement technology in the classroom in a similar way.

Class Tech Push Reaches the Hill - article review

                500 educators let their feelings be known as they stormed Capitol Hill June 30^th, 2009.  While they were all clad in matching blue t-shirts, each saying Invest in 21^st century learning, they brought their cause to the footsteps of the very people that could help their cause.  While visiting 90 Senate houses and 200 House offices, they hoped to encourage lawmakers to invest in what could turn the tide of modern education.

                The article, Class-Tech Push Reaches the Hill, appeared in the Washington Times on July 13^th, 2009.  The author, Carolyn Bourdeau hopes to enlighten readers to a cause already in motion to improve education.  "[A digital-age learners program is] a program to ensure that our new teachers have the skills to integrate technology into the classroom," said Ms. Goldmann. "It would provide funding to colleges of education, teaching teachers coming up, so that they have experience with technology before they arrive in the classroom. There is no federal funding for a program like that at all."  Ms. Goldmann and her peers understand that the current educational system fails to reach students in their own medium.  Students are most comfortable using technology and learn quickly with technology, but one of the problems is the availability of technology in the classroom.

                Goldmann understands that this is a difficult time to ask the government to provide more money for education while our country struggles financially, but what better is there to invest in.  Ensuring the technological savvy of students can help catapult the United States back into the frontrunners of education.  As years go by, other countries are surpassing our educational system, and those countries encourage the broad use of technology.  If our country can do the same, it certainly can’t hurt.

                Goldmann hopes that this program can better equip future educators to be the agents of change that this country needs as it embraces its new technological strengths.  The application of technology in the classroom is limitless.  It is hard to argue that it would not be for the students benefit.  “Ninety-seven percent of high school students use computers, as do 80 percent of those in kindergarten, according to a 2003 release by the National Center for Education Statistics.”  Lawmakers did not grow up the way children are these days and need to be reminded how the times are changing.  These educators are doing that by gathering together and peacefully storming Capitol Hill to show lawmakers their own successful stories.

                These teachers represent what our class is.  We are a new echelon of teachers trying to combine old teaching methods and learning with new technologies to create a hybrid that gives students the best opportunities to learn.  That is what we are doing in this class.  We are bettering ourselves as educators.  We can be the agents of change that this country needs.

Digital Natives

            In the opening, it is said that all of this technology has snuck up on us.  That is the absolute truth to it.  Look back ten years ago and I was using a computer maybe once a week.  I wouldn’t have even imagined needing my own computer or a cell phone, let alone a smart phone.  My brother was born ten years ago.  By the time he was eight, he had his own cell phone and laptop in which he used all the time.  Digital Natives provides insight to how such immersion in technology makes us feel like masters of multitasking while at the same time, it is probably distracting us far too much.

            Kids reportedly spend fifty hours a week with digital media.  “Geeks are normal now.”  When I hear this, I think back to my little brother.  When I ask him if he’s been spending time with friends, he tells me that he has.  My next question is whether he goes to their house or whether they go to his and he looks at me strangely and tells me that he spends time with his friends online.  While I always thought I spent far too much time immersed in technology such as videogames or instant messaging or text messaging, I look at my brother and worry because he far exceeds me in what I feel is somewhat a bad habit.

            What fascinated me in the beginning of Digital Natives was when the professor talked about how he gave an exam to his students that he allowed to have laptops in class.  He said that the question would have been easy to answer if his students had been paying attention and focusing on the reading and the in-class lectures.  He said that the mean score was 75%.  The thing is, students think that multitasking is one of their strong suits.  “All multitaskers think that they are great at multitasking.”  I would say that too, but deep down, I know that I’m saying it to excuse how much I multitask.  I took my Praxis exam this past week and it was numbing for me to just focus on the simple computerized test in front of me.  There was no cell phone, no internet, no games, no media, and no noise through the sound dampening headphones.  It is a feeling akin to being thrown out into the woods without supplies or tools.  I felt out of my element.  But, what do I do when the media element that I’m comfortable in is both addictive and harmful to my learning?

            The South Korean portion of the video was eye opening.  It deals with the idea of internet addiction.  I feel discomforted when my cell phone is dead or removed from my person.  Some people will go into internet withdrawal when they go camping or just have to go a short period of time without it.  It actually deeply stresses people out.  They can’t go without the fix.

            One of the interesting things is wondering why we feel like we need internet or cell phones for interaction.  When it was said that it is because we are dropping out of contact with people, I couldn’t agree more.  When I don’t have my cell phone, I worry that people can’t get in touch with me and I don’t even know it.  I feel like I’m letting my friends down.

            Thing is, the world is a technological world.  As teachers, we must find a way to correct some of these problems while still immersing students in the medium that they are most comfortable in.  That’s what I hope to get out of this class - to use technology to excite students about learning.  I understand that this is instant gratification that is very distracting.  How do I balance the pros and cons of technology in the classroom?  I can only equip myself the best I can in order to be an advocate for my students.