Toys before Teachers

In conversation recently, I heard that US Dept of Commerce research of a few years ago listed EDUCATION as the least technology intensive area of western digital culture. Some web research showed that it’s absolutely true. The conclusion of this research is not old enough to be irrelevant.

Unpacking this statement for teachers and school administrators; our profession, the way we teach and the way we manage our schools has benefited LEAST from the technical revolution compared to all other aspects of our industrialized society.

I’m not sure if this means that we are more or less technology integrated than the neighborhood ice cream truck, but the fact that I can even think about us being LESS is to say that I’m sure there are ice cream vendors who are more computerized in their overall work than some of the teachers I meet.

In 50 years this technology boom has brought us the various space exploration programs, huge advances in all things medical and scientific. We all see what this ingenuity and research and manufacturing prowess (again the benefit of computers) has brought us and our students in the cells phones and MP3 players in class. Surely, we should have seen education take it’s fair share of advantage from this revolution.

Our educational system, one of many industrial operations of the modern state that is NOT benefiting from the advances in digital technologies as rapidly as all other aspects of our industrial base.

Our students are not benefiting from the advances in software, hardware, computer networking, and resources available to them. Surely, we have advanced hardware in our schools, often much more than we actually need. But we have not seen enough change in how we do the business of education with this powerful hardware and software
Sad commentary that we still see more powerful processors in toys for kids (and adults.......) than we see in the classroom. Remember, sadly, the WII was not developed for your classroom……

In business offices and factories, administrative and production personnel, the average employee, has far better access to technology that our average high school teacher in their workplace, the classroom.

What can we do about this?