Technology In Our Schools - A Better Way To Learn, Or An Invitation To Distraction?

Imagine you’re a teacher in today’s modern classroom. You scan a room full of faces, some who are eager to learn, some who are there because they have to be, and some who will give you a chance or two before they tune out. But those faces are the future, and it’s up to you to give them some of the skills they will need to make their way in the world.

Now, if you pass out paper, ask them to open a book, or pick up a pen to write something, the odds are you’ve lost many of them already. Why? Because those are analog devices, and today’s kids are interested in all things digital. No, not interested – enmeshed. Like it or not, the world today presents information in ways that was unheard of a few years ago, unless you’re a kid. And then it’s the only way you’ve known about information.

In other words, technology is only technology to those who were born before it.

For the next few days, Martinez Patch is going to take a look at technology in the Martinez Unified School District; the technology in place now, and what is likely to come.

This is an important transition in our society, and the classroom is the cutting edge of this shift. It is here the teacher and the student come to some agreement on how to use these new devices, and devices that we don’t even know about yet, to break the traditional bonds of education and forge new paths to learning.

It’s not easy, and it doesn’t always work. Not everyone learns the same way. But there is no question that young people today are not likely to turn away from a computer screen to study from a book, if they have a choice. The content a Web site can provide – movies, audio, animation – is far more robust than a book. Can those enhancements be put to use as educational advantages? Or are they just flashy distractions that take away from the core curriculum?

Please join us the next few days as we look at iPads, Smartboards, and teachers and administrators coming together to find new methods of learning, using technologies we have, and ones we haven’t imagined yet.