Journal 1

“Professors adjust their methods to reach technology-savvy generation”.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, written by a staff writer.

I was a computer science grad student in the 80’s at SDSU and reading this article made me feel like it was the 1880’s. Things have changed! I suppose in a very large classroom it makes it less personal, but in an upper division, in smaller classrooms, I would call it rude to even have your laptop open in class. Cell phones, computer games, chatting? It doesn’t sound good to me. Not in the classroom. At the college level it might not be bad for all students, but forget it for high school. I subbed for a high school math class that had computer-based activities, and I found I had a problem, for example, with kids watching fight films on YouTube.

On the other hand, having more contact with your teachers is good. I like the idea of the message boards we have begun using in our ED courses here. Having all the assignment information online keeps you productive at home. Also, I could imagine using computer graphics to illustrate science or math concepts. I like the clicker technology also, but that is technology that engages rather than distracts in class.

Question 1: How much technology should you allow in a high school classroom?
My rules are, technology should draw the attention of the student not distract, and it should enhance learning. College kids can handle the distractions of a laptop on the Internet, but if they fail it’s considered their own problem. This isn’t the case in public K-12. Of course, there may be times when a laptop or even a cell phone of MP3 player can be part of the lesson. But the exact usage of the devices has to be specified to a high school student. Possibly, one could set up a club situation after school for more focused kids to just experiment with technology. But, the key difference is that it would be an optional time when there was no teacher-led class.

Question 2: What technology will be in the high school classroom of 2020?
Taking the trends that have been evident and not allowing for a paradigm shift, I would imagine that many schools will still have only a basic PC hooked up to a big screen. Possibly, it will be a high definition screen. In localities where there is a high tech or high finance presence there will be much more. In fact, in those schools 9th grade science students may experience the dance of the planets in a virtual reality. Einstein's theory of gravity will be directly experienced. Maybe their priorities will be less scientific and the kids will run realistic business simulations. But how will they teach algebra and geometry? I've seen the self paced program in one class and (I don't claim to be any expert on its effectiveness, but) I think it was working pretty well. Perhaps the next generation of software will be able to take in their work and tell them where they went wrong. At this moment that part of the process is owned by the teacher and we get a lot of pride out of doing it. What will it change when that changes to a machine? And, what about all those other schools that have minimal access to technology? What kind of disadvantage will those kids have?