Two articles caught my attention today, both of which are bemoaning reduced levels of funding for educational technology...but there is an undercurrent to these stories that I would like to explore. The L.A. LAUSD skimps on PCs for kids story included the following:
"...states are shifting money from instructional computers to administrative software that tracks data such as student test scores (my emphasis). Educators must use the data to identify practices that improve student performance.
"This is a very interesting shift," said Kevin Bushweller, project editor for Technology Counts 2005.
The same federal leaders who have created the No Child Left Behind law and have backed the push toward data-driven instruction have questioned whether classroom technology has really improved student learning, officials said.
"They say weighing the pig doesn't make it any fatter. You have to do something with it," said Jim Lanich, president of California Business for Education Excellence, a Sacramento-based nonprofit group. "You have to tie it to best practices."
The second article comes from Mississippi, The State spends least on educational technology in U.S. with a similar emphasis on the shift of funding from the student use of computers to instructor use of computers for tracking:
"Technology is an important part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act's reporting requirements and student achievement goals, so states have been forced to spend more money in that area.
Rucker (Susan Rucker, executive to the state superintendent in the Office of Instructional Programs and Services) said despite the lack of state funds, Mississippi is not lagging behind others in technology. The state is working on several initiatives for education technology, including providing online professional development courses and a statewide progress-monitoring program.
Mississippi was the sixth state in the U.S. whose NCLB plan was approved, mainly because officials used computer-driven student tracking information (my emphasis).
Here is my dilemma: I am really over the sense of betrayal that I felt originally when cuts to federal educational technology funds were proposed...I believe that part of that decision was based upon the lack of information pointing to gains in learning with more instructional technology (i.e. computers in the classroom, actual implementaion, etc.). On the other hand, I know that many teachers have struggled with the 'what-do-I-do-with-it-now-that-I've-got it question'... so, the idea that teachers will gain experience in computer use for tracking, assessments, and reporting is not all bad news. Personal computing IS about what can the technology do for me (i.e. teachers). As more and more teachers receive hands on access to computers and discover that there are significant benefits to working smarter and not harder, THEN, perhaps a greater understanding and transferal of that concept can happen on the student side. In an odd sort of twist in this thinking, perhaps more self-assessment by students is in order...and won't each student need access to a computer in order to be able to do those assessments faster, smarter, and with better collaboration? (insert *evil grin* here)...ok, so maybe I haven't gotten over the idea that fewer students will have easy access to computers in the classroom, someone is busy using it to weigh the pig rather than improving it.
Reports like "
Overcoming the infrastructure, access, and training challenges to technology, particularly internet access, has been a fairly common theme for me over the last several months...for the most part, observing the struggles of developing nations 