Comments on: Is technology ready to transform education?

By: Martin Roberts

Martin Roberts — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:03:53 +0000

I think that the technology is evolving at such a phenomenal rate that they real questin is not really whether technology is ready to transform education, but rather if ‘Education is ready to transform technology’.

Currently the technology trends are being dictated by enterprises and entertainment. When will we be ready to say that the path of technological development is also being affected by educational pushes?

“Technology is anything that was invented since you were born. The rest is just everyday stuff.”

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:39:36 +0000

Dr. Christensen talks in his book “Disrupting Class” about how “disruptive innovations” don’t initially compete directly against the current market leader’s product but rather against nonconsumption. For example, in the ’70’s Digital had a very successful market for $200k minicomputers. Apple couldn’t directly compete with DEC’s minicomputers because their personal computers weren’t good enough at the time to solve the problems that DEC’s customers had. So Apple marketed its IIe PC as a relatively affordable toy for kids. Kids were nonconsumers so it didn’t matter to them that the Apple wasn’t as powerful as the existing DEC minicomputers. A few years down the road, however, improvements in PC technology rendered DEC’s minicomputers obsolete.

Dr. Christensen argues that the traditional government-run education system will in the near future be “disrupted” by the innovation of computer-based learning. At first, online learning will compete against nonconsumption by offering classes in subjects where there isn’t enough demand in any given school to justify offering a traditional course (such as a very advanced math one or an unusual foreign language). But eventually, Dr. Christiansen believes that the technology will improve such that computer-based learning will render the traditional model of education obsolete.

He makes an interesting argument, I encourage you all to read “Disrupting Class” for yourselves.

By: BadaBing

BadaBing — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:23:51 +0000

All the technology in the world isn’t going to save us from ourselves. You want to transform education? Then transform children by bringing back the traditional two-parent (one male, the other female) family. Kids from broken homes come to school with a millstone around their necks. They need two parents that will love them and instill virtue. Unfortunately, we’ve gone too far in the wrong direction to ever bring it back.

By: pm

pm — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:13:03 +0000

Any technology is going to have the same problems as The ubiquitous technology in education, books. If don’t know how to use the technology it will be worthless to your education. If you can’t afford to buy the technology you won’t be able to use it for your education. And there’s no technology that can yet match a skilled and engaged guide or classmate in terms of learning productivity. But if you do know how to use some technology, can afford to get access to it, and the appropriate guide/classmate is not available it sure seems like you should put that technology to good use.

Some of my favorites:

1. Books – don’t require batteries or plugs so you can take them anywhere, lots of information in a small space
2. DVD + TV – have voices that never get tired, don’t mind repeating themselves ad-infinitum, if done well can actually get kids to sing and play along
3. Computers – these things never get tired of drill, they give kids immediate feedback, report and share results automatically

I keep plenty of these around my house and they are often put to good use. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that can’t afford what I can or perhaps don’t know how to use these technologies. So please …

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY !!

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:01:31 +0000

It seems preposterous, given that personal computing has been around for 30 years now, but in my experience there is still a lot of computer-phobia at all rank levels of K-12 education, from classroom teachers to district superintendents. This is reflected in the fact that Education is the only white collar sector in which a typical worker’s desk – i.e., that of a classroom teacher – does not usally have a computer on it. Heck, just having a working phone in each room seems well beyond the capabilities of many school districts and phones have been around for a century longer than personal computers. Computers aren’t going to remake public education because a sizable majority of the people involved in providing it don’t appear to want to have anything to do with computers if they can possibly avoid doing so.

By: david foster

david foster — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:59:00 +0000

Mark…why specifically is it more educational for a student to write an assignment using a blogging tool, rather than to write it with a word processor or for that matter with a typewriter or a quill pen?

By: Lightly Seasoned

Lightly Seasoned — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:32:37 +0000

Brian Rude: I you, man. I’d argue that evaluation of sources and discrimination of what and how you search are the key skills of the internet age. Wiki’s, blogs, etc. are useful literacy tools, but I think they work simply because of their novelty.

Education embraces edu-fad because political reality demands instant results. Real reform starts in early elementary and bubbles up. It also takes 3 – 5 years for a (good, supported) teacher to truly implement responsive, effective teaching in her classroom. Everybody wants the test scores up this year. Even Jaime Escalante took 10 years to get that AP Calc class you see in the film (it didn’t happen in one year… please… who is idiotic enough to believe that?). But as long as Hollywood says you can do it in one year, then that is what the public believes.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:33:58 +0000

Brian Rude hits the nail on the head.

By: allen

allen — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:07:22 +0000

Film strips, movies, radio, television and computers in early ’80s were all going to transform public education and without exception they failed.

Mightn’t it be worth understanding why, in a world of blistering change, the public education system has resisted all substantive change while eagerly embracing every half-baked edu-fad?

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:21:50 +0000

Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School has an interesting new book out called “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns”. He sees computer-based learning as a “disruptive innovation” that will transform K-12 schooling. In his book, he postulates that demand for online high school classes will follow an S-curve that will start to “flip” in the year 2012. In the years between 2012 and 2018, Dr. Christensen projects that the share of online courses will grow from 5% to 50% of all high school courses. I’m not sold on his timetable but I do think that in the not-to-distant future we’ll see a much greater market share for computer-based learning.