Failing Down

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It's always kind of fun when post ideas just kind of fall into your lap. I was going through some news stories last night as I was getting ready for bed, and I came across one that fits really well with some of the stuff I covered in my posts last week. This news story actually broke a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason it just came across my feed last night.

I apologize if the full article is behind a paywall, but if you are interested, you can check it out here. Obviously, since it is from Fortune magazine, they are focusing on the financial side of things, but to offer a little more perspective, I wanted to give you some insight from someone who actually works in education.

It's no shock, that technology has always been around in education, at least in recent history. From the days of one or two Apple IIe's in your classroom where you could play Logo, Oregon Trail, Mission Mix Up, or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I know the article points to an initiative that was rolled out in 2002, but things really didn't start to pick up (at least for us) until around 2013.

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Before I get to that though, let me talk about the fact that public education tends to get a bad rap. The truth is, the majority of us are just people trying to do a job who care about the students and want the best for them. That isn't to say there aren't some bad apples among the ranks, but the real issue is the government getting involved, imposing their will, and telling us how to do our jobs.

You see, back in 2013, an online testing company got it in the governments ear that all state assessments should be online. Of course, they would gladly help develop the delivery platform (for a fee of course). With all state assessments moving online, schools were suddenly forced to have devices for the students to take the tests. In the past, most buildings had maybe one or two computer labs. The logistics of moving students through a lab 30 kids at a time for 6 to 8 hours of testing was just impossible.

So in walks Google and other companies with their laptops or Chromebooks. I should let you know now, I love Chromebooks. From an admin point of view they are inexpensive, they are amazingly easy to manage, and they have relatively few issues. They are a dream when used correctly. As you might expect, districts started investing heavily in Chromebooks and other devices to fill the need for state assessments.

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At some point, certain districts realized they had enough devices that they could probably start this crazy idea called 1 to 1, where every kid has a device. The ones that did it right spent a lot of time training their staff, students, and parents to actually integrate the technology into their lesson plans. It wasn't just something they used to search the web, they were actively creating and supporting their instruction with the devices.

Unfortunately, then Covid came along and all of these districts who didn't have time to train and create a plan for 1 to 1 computing suddenly had to make it happen. In most cases, a device was just given to a student and nothing was done beyond that. That's not to say districts didn't try, but Covid was a crazy time. People were focused on staying alive and being able to get food on the table each week, learning how to implement a 1 to 1 initiative with fidelity wasn't at the top of our lists.

Then Covid ended, things kind of went back to normal, but kids still have these devices that most teachers don't know what to do with. The students just use them to play games and listen to music, and things are kind of going to hell.

With books like "The Anxious Generation" coming out touting the detriment of technology for young people, and various other issues, I have been one of the few who have said "maybe we should not be using technology quite so much". Which is kind of funny, since I am the Technology Director for the district.

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Of course, people always point to the fact that some of these kids might not have access to technology otherwise, but I honestly don't think that is the case. Even people on welfare can get smartphones these days. In fact, the first time I said maybe we should move away from 1 to 1, the people I was talking to laughed at me.

I'm not saying we get rid of all technology, we still need it available, and sadly, we still have to use it for testing, but I don't think our high school students need to be taking a Chromebook home with them every night. In fact, in the past school year, many districts have started to move back to carts in classrooms where the students have access to technology, but it doesn't go home with them.

Now, with studies like the one I mentioned before, we might finally see a move away from technology back to the basics that worked for many many years. The argument has always been that "kids brains are different these days" and "they learn different now", but it appears science might be proving that isn't true.

Unfortunately, there will continue to be those big corporations convincing the government (through kickbacks and other means I am sure), that we need to spend even more money on something that has proven to be quite detrimental to our youth. Meanwhile, parents will blame schools, public school employees will be vilified, and no one will want to go into education as a profession. Which ultimately leaves low quality individuals educating our youth.

It's a grim picture of the future.

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