Posted on 07/07/2008 4:58:04 AM PDT by decimon
BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I heard about one on the radio this morning. Cyber Phys.Ed. Oh yeah, that’ll work real well.
Will they be able to print their own name, without a printer?
I’m all for this change where it works. I’m for monitoring where it works rather than going in with presumptions of what will work.
One thing is for sure: technology costs money. If "virtual teachers" or similar concepts work, then it ought to result in smaller staff. If the lecture is on DVD, you don't need to hire a lecturer. I think the Unions will oppose this. Unless, of course, staffs stay the same, or actually increase in order to manage to great influx in new technology. That could cause education budgets to sky-rocket. Whoo-Hoo!! [/s]
"We don't usually get capital dollars, or bond issue dollars. Sometimes we don't get local dollars. So on average it works out 70 percent of the per pupil spending that an average school in the state would receive," he said."
If that's true then this is a good deal, moneywise. The unions surely will oppose that.
My sister is a middle-school math teacher in the DC area who is old-school - concepts, drill, homework, problem solving on paper. She gets outstanding results and her kids love her because they really achieve. She knows that experiments like this are bound to turn out another crop of innumerate kids with zero math skills.
If they are still teaching that Joseph McCarthy was an evil person, Socialism is a good idea that just hasn't been done right, or that the Western world stole the resources of the rest of the world to get rich, then they are just learning garbage faster.
That said, you are right that monitoring is required but unions are resisting that effort.
In short, online education - technology more generally - is revolutionizing traditional schema of education delivery - a good thing.
A presumption of mine is that computers should work where repetition is needed. When a kid gets hung up on some math concept the computer will be infinitely patient in presenting the problem in different ways until the kid gets it. A teacher, on the other hand, will have neither the time nor the patience to work through every mental block in every kid.
But what about the content? The technology is wonderful, but is the content any good? What are they teaching?
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall.
It doesn't indicate if these are college classes but that's what came to mind as I know those courses are in a boom. Having taken night courses in NYC, I'm sure I would much prefer the online courses.
I think I was considered more the *rick in the hall than the brick in the wall.
A very important question. I see some possibility that technology could improve things here. For instance: Picture some aging hippy teaching HS kids about the Vietnam War. You could look at his curriculum, and it might appear to be balanced, but perhaps if you sat in on his lectures, you'd see a pronounced anti-American bias. But how would parents really know that this is the contents of his class?
On the other hand, a DVD covering the same material could be vetted as truly balanced. Parents could watch it and reassure themselves if they like. The DVD could provide consistency and balance across many school districts. Someone like Thomas Sowell could endorese a series of lectures on economics to let parents feel comfortable with the content.
Obviously, bad content could just as easily cause widespread problems -- but my point is that the content of a DVD can be more easily known than the content of the lecture that Mr. Henderson delivered last week.
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I think it may also be available for homeschoolers, but I'm not positive about that.
** I think I was considered more the *rick in the hall than the brick in the wall. **
LOL. I had fun in HS too.
Have you formed an opinion on the viability of those courses?
I don't have any personal experience with the high school level courses. I've taken some on-line college courses and was generally satisfied, although I felt some professors did a better job than others.
I was offered the opportunity to proctor some of the credit recovery courses this summer, but had scheduling conflicts and wasn't able to do so, even though I wanted to do it just to see how the courses worked.
I know a couple of the online teachers, and they are very good classroom teachers. Also, I had a brief discussion with a couple of the honors students at our school who were taking an online course because it wasn't offered at our school. They were fairly satisfied, although they missed some of the "in-person" interaction of a "regular" class.
Point taken.
Here is a link to an article about that! I thought you were kidding!
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