Thursday, January 22, 2009

It is interesting that equity came up in class before seeing the video presentation on TED because as educators we are charged with how to eliminate the achievement gap and educate all students and the topic of how to and the importance pops up all the time. I do believe that if we put the money and technology in low achieving schools with proper support it will increase student achievement. But it won't happen because of the equity issues. People who can raise money and create additional resources for schools will not raise money for another school because it is another school and it "won't benefit my kid." I struggle with the idea that a person can be eliminated and a computer can do the job of teaching primary students. Technology can motivate and inspire and there is a place in education for motivation and inspiration, but there are life skills that technology cannot teach.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for bringing this up in your comments, Robin. Our CIO in Beaverton is coming on the 19th and is slated to discuss this. I don't think he has all the answers, but it's something he grapples with regularly. In the era of school localization, efforts to benefit just my kid becomes such a self-centered, non-democratic notion. Is that what we want in our public schools. What happened to the "greater good" idea? Thanks for all you contribute to class, Robin.

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