It's that time off year again: The annual back-to-school "Tech in Schools...is it worth it?" hand wringer from the New York Times. This year, reporter Matt Richtel wrote a 3-part series called, "Grading the Digital School." In the first article, he profiles ONE district, whose 80% success rate remains "stagnant" in the 80s after six years of a tech immersion program. One district does not a national symposium make. Here's the link:
And here's the gist:
In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning.
The second article, entitled, "Inflating the Software Report Card" questions the effectiveness of math software. The third article, "A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute," pits edtech against Waldorf pedagogy, creating an either/or argument rather than a thorough report on these approaches to teaching and learning.
In many opinions, Mr. Richtel has presented shallow, biased reporting unworthy of the New York Times. I'd like to think that our community of readers are living, breathing proof to the success of integrating tech into schools. To that end, please post below what you consider to be the proof of tech success in your schools. Maybe you have public literacy scores as tracked through your software curriculum programs. Maybe you have a video or podcast that showing students and edtech at work. Maybe a phenomenal E-Portfolio. When we get 100, we will offer it to the reporter. Who's with me?!
