What Makes the Most Difference? Teachers or Technology

Millard West Student, Danielle Kosalka, wrote an article for her school newspaper raising questions about the need for more technology in the classroom. Danielle points out that "students have become accustomed to the technology thinking for them" which is just one of the negative impacts that should concern teachers and parents. It is encouraging that even young people are seeing the possible pit falls. It is a subject that concerns parents who feel that their kids are far too dependent on technology as it is. Danielle asked, "How did students and teachers survive before computers?"

From one of those students who survived without computers, smart boards, Wi-Fi, Internet access, and countless portable Internet devices I believe that the heavy emphasis on technology in some schools is over rated. What I remember most about my education was the impact of teachers on my success. It may seem to some like an old-fashioned perspective, but I am far more concerned that our school district attract the best teachers then the latest technology.

I realize that my concern is rare and that most people are under the impression that more technology translates to better educated kids. A comment from a reader of the Millard Parent Society blog reflects that perspective. "As a high end IT person by trade, I believe that it is difficult to expose children to too much technology. This world is becoming very technologically advanced and the younger you start kids with technology the better they will be equipped for the real world. Computers and IT are just as important for children to learn today as any of the other sciences or the arts."

Another Millard resident I talked to countered this idea sarcastically, "I wonder how I learned to survive in this technologically advanced world when I had so little exposure to computers in elementary school? How am I even able to think for myself, I wonder?" He is not alone in this thought. I am 33 years old and even the IT professionals of my generation had limited exposure to computers in elementary school and despite this my generation caught on pretty fast. I seriously doubt that our kids are unable to do the same.

Without being immersed in technology at school our kids will have plenty opportunities to become tech savvy and I am concerned that too much emphasis on technology in the classroom cheats our kids out of critical cognitive development. Danielle Kosalka warned that critical writing skills are lost when students use computers for all their writing assignments and reports. Today students research online, cut and paste, and do practically no old fashioned research and sentence construction. She said that students "lose vital skills in writing, grammar, and spelling" when they depend on technology to get the job done.

In an article by Darrell Hammond, "Who Will Be the Next Steve Jobs?" He quotes the tech mogul who is "largely credited for the evolution of today's personal computer." Despite being one of the worlds top IT professionals Jobs "never advocated that kids spend the better part of their waking hours in front of one." In fact, Jobs said, "I've helped put more computers in more schools than anybody else in the world and I am absolutely convinced by no means that it is the most important thing. The most important thing is a person. A person who incites your curiosity and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can. The elements of discovery are all around you. You don't need a computer."

Author, Julie Ryan Evans, from CafeMom, believes that there is "real danger in letting our children rely too much on technology and not get out and learn in the dirt of the real world." She tells parents who may be concerned that their child's school "isn't as technologically advanced" that their worry may be unnecessary. In fact, "a lack of smart boards and personal computers for every student is in line with one of the most elite educational approaches". Everyday 160 Waldorf Schools across the world defy the concept that technology and education go hand in hand. There commitment is to "generating an inner enthusiasm for learning within every child... allowing motivation to arise from within and helping engender the capacity for joyful lifelong learning" through providing opportunities for students to learn through experience. Waldorf schools demonstrates how "learning with less technology may be better for students."

We need to be careful that technology is not crowding out the more important facets of education that develop a healthy curiosity. Unfortunately we are too often failing to inspire our children's curiosity, creativity, and imagination. Hammond warned that "we are denying them opportunities to tinker, discover, and explore -- in short, to play." Is public school serving our children well when someone as successful as Steve Jobs says that his public education "came close to really beating any curiosity out of me"? Certainly not!

Job's remedy, "You need a person. Computers are very reactive but they're not proactive; they are not agents. What children need is a... guide." Even's article reminds us that our resources would be better spent on basics then technology. Whether at home or in school what kids really need is that personal touch that inspires them to learn and love it. If we want our kids to get the very best education that will develop their natural abilities to think, reason, and create then we are going to have to focus our resources and ideas in the area that has the most lasting effect, teachers.

Tom Hodgkinson, writes in the Telegraph that, "Long-suffering teachers have to cope with a constantly changing educational ideology". Our teachers have enough to contend with as they struggle to inspire our children in an "era of parental paranoia, lawsuit mania and testing frenzy." The last thing they need is to be drowned in targets, testing, and technology. They are continually at the whim of the latest "educational trend" and the next technology on the horizon. "Without doubt the next Education Secretary will have a different set of brilliant ideas and the previous lot will be thrown out. If politicians and technocrats could only leave the schools alone, teachers might be able to get on with teaching."

Danielle Kosalka got it right when she said, "We need to slow down and dial back the use of technology. The overuse of technology will come back to haunt" students and I would add our society as a whole.