"Turning on the Lights"

In this article, the author writes: “So systematically, as kids enter our school buildings, we make them shut off all their connections. No cell phones. No music players. No game machines. No open Internet. When kids come to school, they leave behind the intellectual light of their everyday lives and walk into the darkness of the old-fashioned classroom… Schools, despite our best intentions, are leading kids away from the light.” While I do think that technology such as cell phones and mp3 players could be used in the classroom for learning purposes, I think the reason teachers remove the use of these devices is because they can be a distraction, not necessarily to force the students to “power down” or push them into “darkness.”

Also, I am not sure that I agree with the author’s zeal for entertaining the generation of digital natives. There’s a lot of hullabaloo on making sure kids aren’t bored in this society. Even though I did not have the fanciest equipment in my classrooms, I do not recall my school days as boring. I grew up with a computer in my house, and would call myself a digital native, but I don’t feel that a state-of-the-art computer could replace an effective teacher. I agree that the technology in the classroom should mirror the times, and that state-of-the-art equipment is pretty cool, but to say that kids are being shoved into darkness just because the school doesn’t provide them with the technology they are used to is a little over the top for me. What does that say about low-income schools that only have a budget for overhead projectors? Are those students any less capable of learning because they aren’t being entertained? In my opinion, electronics cannot replace an engaging teacher.

I feel like this author is discrediting the basics of education; it seems like he wants to turn public schools into vocational programs. Does every student desire to pursue an education in programming, multimedia literacy and creation, astronautics, bioethics, genomics, or nanotechnology? I had no desire to pursue any of those things, but if I did, I would need a math education in order to even begin these classes.

Overall, I agree that multimedia and technology needs to be used in the classroom, and I’m all about schools incorporating specific science-related subjects into after-school programs because our schools do need to be focused on the future. And I especially like the author’s ideas for the everyday use of technology that students are already familiar with in the classroom. But, I would like to hear what a school teacher, somebody who spends time with the students, has to say about the topic, as opposed to the author who is a speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the areas of education and learning.