The Broad-trained superintendent of Huntsville, Alabama, has purchased 22,000 laptops and iPads for the students in the district.
This is the same superintendent who contracted to send recalcitrant students to live in a teepee until they learned to behave.
The laptops and iPads are being readied for use this fall.
Nothing has been said about the curriculum that these machines are supposed to teach/facilitate/whatever.
I remember many years ago when I was on a committee at the National Endowment for the Humanities to pick the best education idea submitted by the states, with a prize of something like $100,000 (I know, peanuts now, but back in the 1980s that was real money). Bill Bennett was head of NEH and he listened to our deliberations. At one point, he interjected that almost every proposal was a delivery mechanism. No one suggested anything that they intended to deliver.
That’s what a computer/laptop/ipad is: a delivery system.
Why does Huntsville want every student, starting in kindergarten, to have one?
Do they have any thoughts about the education they seek to offer? Or just a new-fangled delivery system?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I thought it was interesting when this article was posted in the NY Times. The executives in Silicon Valley who make their money off technology and its advancements send their kids to a low-tech school for a quality education.
Do the Broadies think if they put an iPad into the hands of a struggling reader/writer that they will magically learn how to? Another foolish idea brought to you by a philanthrocapitalist masquerading as an education reformer.
Short excerpt and full link:
LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.
But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.
Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.
Recommended reading: Mindstorms by Seymour Papert – a computer CAN be used for more than just delivery of content. Is it often used for only that purpose? Definitely, and it’s a shame when that is the case, but it is not necessarily the case.
Blaming poor pedagogy on the computer is like blaming the hammer when you strike your thumb with it. It’s the user of the tool that should be blamed, not the tool.
That’s a pretty good analogy. But if you’re using a 16lb hammer to drive a brad it’s a good possibility you’re going to smash your finger no matter how accurate the strike. It’s a matter of fitting the tool (computer) to the job (pedagogy).
But that sounds like the tool shouldn’t change the pedagogy. I disagree. Digital technologies will certainly feel irrelevant and overpriced if we use them to replace pencil and paper and stop there. Laptops and iPads are only tools for delivery if we use them as such. But they also afford opportunities to expand pedagogy in powerful and relevant ways, especially when considering the digital problem solving and creation environments the kids in our schools will be expected to flourish in. That requires, however, a professional staff that understands those affordances for themselves. Spending millions of dollars to infuse technologies that teachers themselves aren’t prepared to learn with is a waste. But that’s not the fault of the technology, is it?
(Note: To be clear, I’m not bashing teachers here, merely commenting on the tensions that we’re experiencing as the profession undergoes what is more and more not an optional shift with technology.)
This way they can say they have access to technology! Isn’t that a headline for the media? Huntsville is now in the 21st century.
The teachers in Huntsville City Schools are receiving 5 days of training immediately before the start of the school year. I don’t feel confident that this will give us adequate time or training to truly integrate the use of the new technology into our lessons but I feel certain that if there is not evidence that we are using the laptops almost daily, it will be a mark against us on our evaluations.
I’m quite sure you’ve got that right.
This trend of merely equipping students with technological gadgets is disconcerting and dehumanizing. A “one size fits all” approach goes against everything research has been telling us for years! I’m not sure where such rabid technophilia comes from? I’m convinced that schools are grasping at straws to raise test scores, but unfortunately as you say, many are going at it with such abandon and without proper research about WHAT is being taught, as opposed to HOW it’s being taught. The private schools are jumping on this bandwagon too. When will we learn that there is no panacea for fixing schools that doesnt start with strong teachers and a strong curriculum!
while i agree fully with the tone of this post, i would respectfully point out the difference between a laptop and a pencil. laptops are more than simply a “delivery system”–a laptop can also be a gateway, a key, and an equalizer. for a kid with no access to the Internet at home, and no money to get connected, a laptop can be a tremendous access point.
now, without professional development for the teachers and adequate instruction for the students those laptops may be nothing more than 21st century pencils, but there are lots better things for us to complain about in education today than schools spending money on technology for students.
So you assume teachers need professional development in order to know how to use this laptop…well that tells us about your lack of respect for educators.
Also, if you can’t compose a coherent sentence, paragraph or essay with a pencil you won’t be able to with a laptop, unless you are really good a cutting and pasting and you don’t worry about plagiarism.
No, but teachers do need professional development on how to merge new technology with the things they already do. In 2012, or should be generally assumed that teachers know how to turn a computer on, and have basic knowledge of word processing, email, and web searching. It’s not a lack of respect to train teachers on the myriad other tools that are available to students today. It’s beginning to be a necessity, as a matter of fact. These tools are out there. We might as well find out ways to utilize them.
Most of the students’ time will be spent on practicing for the high stakes test, taking the test and testing the next test. That is how they will spend most of their time on computers. Go reform!
i think you are misinterpreting my comment–i don’t think that teachers don’t know how to use computers. i’m a teacher, i’m married to a teacher, and i help prepare teachers. what i worry about is laptops being “dropped off” in a school and given to kids without the teachers getting any sort of professional development help in how to get the kids to use the machines in the classroom, how to adapt their teaching to take advantage of the new technology, and how to use the machines most effectively.
laptops are both tools and gateways–all of my students use them now in class, but its taken me a bit of time to figure out how to adjust to this new reality, and i’m still not there yet. . .
Yes, I agree and understand. However, I still have twelve and thirteen year olds who still struggle with basic sentence structure and basic spelling. They cannot magically write coherently on a laptop if they cannot write on paper. If you have time read the NY Times article posted at the top. Interesting what the Silicon Valley execs. want for their kids and it is NOT more technology in their schools. I suspect there isn’t too much time spent on high stakes testing either.
Radio was going to transform education. TV was going to transform education. Computers have transformed education from teaching and learning into training and testing.
It’s not the computer that has done that at all, it’s the political powers that define education as a commodity, to be used to improve their own welfare, and supposedly to improve the welfare of your country.
As Mitchell said educators do need technological pedagogical knowledge in order to do some sense of “delivery systems” in their lessons. We have web 2.0 tools but we need to develop knowledge to use it. To that goal more investment in teacher education is needed. The problem is that you got the laptops in your classrooms and that give good headlines in the press for policy makers; investment in professional development of educators give an headache.
It cannot and should not be about the device….pencil/paper, smartphone, iPad….whatever, must be about teaching and learning and changing pedagogy. What is it that we want students to know and be able to do is the question that must be answered first, then there can be a decision made about the device that will fit into the curriculum and instruction! Professional development is paramount and often not addressed by leaders who just want to make some vision a reality and further their own career goals.
My local school system also equipped all its high school students with laptops several years ago. Mainly it allowed them to access Blackboard postings and send writing assignments via a drop box. Judging from the 3 or 4 belonging to my daughter’s friends that were left at the house for long periods of time during the school year, I’m not sure how much academic value they added. They were also redundant for many students who had their own and who found the school system’s basic equipment somewhat feeble. Many kids, even those without their own, don’t seem to have a high regard for basic laptops or pad devices, but attach a great value to a device’s power and style, just like a lot of kids do with brand name clothing.
Kids see the same ads we do and more about online game playing capacity, video speed, and, “essential” peripherals. For males it may mean being able to access WOW in its various iterations; for females, Skyping. Giving kids bottom of the line equipment, which is what most schools systems can afford, may just find them hiding it away somewhere out of embarrassment.
Kids ought to have some input first on some of these things before adults decide top down what’s best for them. A little market research on the clientele wouldn’t be a bad thing. Once the powers that be commit a community to such a large investment, both in original equipment and upkeep, its tough to say, “oops things aren’t working too well.” At that point someone is going to be blamed, and 9 times out of 10 guess who that will be.
Universal, free access to high speed internet is a whole different issue, with only an upside for kids except, of course, for the risks inherent for kids searching its darker byways.
Back when computers were in their infancy and everyone thought it was the best thing since white bread, the saying was , “Garbage in, garbage out”
I am not completely opposed to ipads in the classroom.
The real question is what are the students going to do with them? It’s a novelty so suits believe that children will be drawn to it and learn more.
I have a Nook in my pre-k class on which I have downloaded age appropriate books for them to read. My students hardly use it. They prefer to hold a real book in their hands and actually turn the pages and touch the illustrations. To be honest, I was quite surprised. I have an e-reader and love it. But I am a reader and not someone just trying to figure out all the pieces of print. I have a Smart Table in my room. The activities that are available are ok but not great and are fixed. The Smart Table is also rarely asked for. My students prefer, when collaborating on a problem, to work with actual manipulatives, and share in real time and adjust for differences in their skills.
Technology is just a tool; an expensive and bells and whistle tool, nonetheless.
I am guessing that giving each child a laptop allows the suits to say they are giving their students the best available resources and later if and when the students do not meet standards, it will be the fault of the teachers and students and not the lack of actual instruction.
All the better to take all those online tests coming at us with CCSS…now if the schools just have the broadband (no pun intended) capacity to support all this technology.
Louisiana sure isn’t.
Florida is trying to go all digital on textbooks by 2015, so there are going to be a ton of tablet purchases made here. Administrators have already had to purchase iPads to carry out the new observation system.
My school issues laptops to every student, and I think it has created more problems than it has solved. Students have very poor spelling, orthography, mnemonic ability, and the ability to sustain concentration compared to just a few years ago. Add to this the time spent in off-task web surfing and whatnot. Computers are a useful tool for those who have already developed some academic and cognitive skills, but they do not “create” knowledge. The effect reminds me of what happens when you pass out calculators to elementary kids who have not learned arithmetic yet.
The provocatively titled “The Dumbest Generation” by Mark Bauerlein is an interesting discussion of techno-worship in the classroom and amongst the youth.
Bulking up on hardware to switch to online curricula and testing!!!!!!!!
Listened to our new principal talk about the coming school year. She wanted to add many IPads. But we already have a nice computer lab and laptop carts. And she never mentioned how the IPads would be used.
Parents instead asked for more class time for hands on science labs, at lest in the middle school years; they wanted more class time for Spanish to develop fluency; and they wanted a better organized writing program in the middle school years. They did not see the value of library time, as it was used, for the middle school years. Principal had little to say in response, however.
The superintendent explains the purpose of the computers here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o1lZEY6jrg&feature=em-share_video_user. He does in fact, say “A computer is nothing more than a delivery mechanism” around 1:14. Sigh. I agree with those who say computers could be more, but it also seems like the thrust of Diane’s point is right on for this case.
A reader wrote to say that the superintendent in Huntsville is laying off experienced teachers and hiring TFA.
That is true. He seems to have little respect for career teachers.