The So-Called "Problem" With Technology in Schools

Porter, Alfonzo. (January 2013). The problem with technology in schools. The Washington Post. Retrieved from:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/the-problem-with-technology-in-schools/2013/01/28/cf13dc6c-6963-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_blog.html


After reading an article by Alfonzo Porter in The Washington Post titled "The problem with technology in schools," I am almost left speechless. Clearly Porter has never been a teacher nor has he stepped foot in a classroom in over 10 years. Now I get that this was written about two and a half years ago, but I just don't think that technology has advanced so much in that time that technology would have been considered a problem. Porter's argument is that teenager's now a days can't seem to look up from the screen of their devices and that teacher's are "forced to perform the 'put that away, unplug that, please log off' dance every class period." His stance is that the device should be left in a student's locker and not allowed in the classroom. If a student is caught with it, it can be confiscated and should only be returned to the parent. "If parents believe it is acceptable for their child to violate established school policies, then the schools are left with no other option other than to seize them." A little harsh of a policy, don't you think? He claims that students are more distracted in class with their device by sending out Tweets or looking at videos on YouTube. It's funny, if you take a look at the picture in the article, the students don't have devices out, however, they also look somewhat disinterested in their teacher's lecture. Porter also states that "teachers reported that students are distracted constantly. Their memory is highly disorganized." Clearly these teachers are the ones not implementing technology into their classroom. Maybe the student is distracted because they are so bored and disconnected from the lesson because they aren't actively involved. If those teachers began utilizing Twitter and Youtube into the classroom and allowing students to respond to questions or research a topic on Youtube, maybe they would be much more focused and they would retain more. The best part of the whole article though is at the end when he seems to almost contradict himself when he starts explaining how many "education reformers tend to look to technology to solve some of the challenges that face our public schools ... the emphasis on pedagogy to raise student scores has generated a number of interesting projects and studies." So my question to Mr. Porter would be, if students are starting to use technology more in the classroom and educators are seeing an increase in scores, then why is technology such a problem in the classroom? He ends with the fact that schools must "leap ahead in developing a 'Digital Citizenship' curriculum to appropriately guide students beginning from kindergarten on technology usage." And so in just almost three years, look how far we have come. Classrooms with a 1:1 ratio independently working on iPads, laptops, using cameras, and other devices. Flipped classrooms in which students are actually doing more learning from home prior to class so that they can actually be doing more project work at school. I wonder what Mr. Porter would think now?