Paul's Blog

The other day, I was reading an article about whether or not it made sense to use more technology in the classroom. Some of the arguements for it were that it would be easier to deal with carrying so many books around and always having the content at your fingertips, along with the ability to do research very quickly.

Digital classroom learning tools might have made it easier for my near-sightedness growing up, as well. Imagine being able to actually SEE what's "on the board" right there in front of your face? Imagine being able to interact with the teacher more easily, and not have to walk up to the board to jot your answers, but to write or draw from your desktop. The best part? How about, you've already got the notes from the board which you can translate into digital text, rather than just a graphic. ... and you didn't even have to type/write it! Now that's cool! Imagine also being able to always have the latest updates to your history books?

The argument on the other side is how difficult it would be for kids to keep from destroying this equipment and who it would cost when these things did get destroyed. Kids notoriously drop things. Things break. Books can weather that storm, but notebook computers and tablet PCs can't. So, what's the alternative? Don't ever update to technology, or find a way to reduce the cost of hardened pieces of equipment? I mean, come-on, we use these things on shop floors, manufacturing plants, and on construction sites. It's obvious that we can overcome these issues. Of course, the other side of that is how heavy they are... hmmm... back to square one, aren't we?

So, I was just reading one of my favorite blogs, JKonTheRun (with my pals James and Kevin!), and Kevin pointed out a piece of technology that should have made perfect sense to me, since I was already using it for something like this: Digital Magazines on a stick! I thought, "Duh! I have the simple answer, in my hands!" Why not give the kids their books on USB drives? THAT's a whole lot lighter than those gigantic science and math books my kid brings home! Besides, you can even change the size of the type to make it easier to read, for us old folks when we're helping out with the homework.

It doesn't solve the whole problem, or question, I mentioned at the top of this post, but it does bring us a little closer to what makes some sense. With PCs in the classroom, and PCs at home, kids can really get what they need and not need a chiropractor from lugging those books around! (no offense to you back-doctors out there!) Besides, the teachers can certainly send the kids home with encrypted notes for the parents to read, and we could digitally sign-off on homework and the like. Lesson plans could be delivered this way, too.

There's a world of good technology out there for education, why don't we use it? What's your take?