Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Schools are Changing?

In this age of instant gratification using computers, I have a few concerns from a technology and an educational view.

1. If we are so tech savvy, then why was Sarah Palin vetted better?
2. If we are so tech savvy, then why are son many companies asking to be bailed out? Can it be that they were blind to what was coming or that they did not use technology properly to see what was coming?
3. If we are so tech savvy and want our students to be, then why do so many school systems block sites or worse, not have policies that govern technology use adequately or even worse, lack the hardware to use technology properly?

Just a few of my favorite questions at Holiday time...

1 comment:

Lori M. Carter said...

Hey Doug!
Politicians and technology do not necessarily go hand in hand! In fact, it seems that politicians hope that Americans maintain our limited knowledge about their decision-making and policies. I'm not sure I'd be looking toward the government as a model of technology (information) use...

As far as schools go, I think we would all be better served if communication were better. Are their plans to move toward teaching our students the skills necessary to traverse the Internet safely? Or, will we continue to block their ability to try? Look around, large institutions that refused to acknowledge the change technology was demanding of their institutions are dying on the vine. (publishing, newspapers....) Our students (as you know) use technology at home...yet we demand they forget it at school.

While teaching Internet safety today, I asked, "Does everyone know what e-mail is?" One little girl said, "Of course, we do, we're kids, we know about technology." And, everyone knew about e-mail. I feel slightly ashamed that we are not teaching them to be digital citizens in a more thorough manner.
Are we preparing them for a global economy? Not really, look at our political leaders...as our nation, what are our priorities....really?