Educational Technology

I’m seeing lots of pushback on Educational Technology. There is the “Screen Time” concern, the RAMageddon issue, AI concerns and more.

Screen Time

This one has been growing for a while. I partially get it. The thought of a kid starting vacantly into a screen all day is concerning. However, the movement misses two important points: screen time outside of school, and screen use versus screen time.

I can’t tell you the number of conversations that I’ve had with parents who were “going to limit” screen time at home, but…. Lots of different reasons came up, the kids have to have a phone due to sports, the kids need a phone so that I can check on them, the kids have to have a phone for safety reasons. And once those kids have a phone, limiting their access is hard. And it is. Parenting is hard. I say this not sarcastically, but realistically. Parenting was hard as my kids were growing up.

So, one of the easier places to point to limiting screens is school. Schools are frequently seen as letting the kids use screens too much. There is some validity to this. There are teachers and schools who do use screens for “rewards”, as an entertainment device, and in questionable pedagogy ways. We’ve never actually provided Professional Development on a scale necessary for teachers to utilize technology well. Thus, one of the issues isn’t time, but the why the screen is being used.

Additionally, there has been a real push from many technology providers to move kids into using devices in ways that are questionable (or should at least be questioned) as well. There are many platform providers who have way oversold their results. Some of this was even endorsed by the federal government. (I need to find the link, but basically, researchers get to define “success” on their own.)

RAMadeddon

With the prices of devices skyrocketing due to RAM and other components, the removal of federal dollars to purchase devices, and the general constraints on budgets, many schools are in a tough spot in terms of affording to replace devices.

A device for every student became pretty much the standard when remote learning was put into place. Lots of curriculum resources are only available online. However, with diminishing budgets, those resources may go away.

Many schools were hit with a big increase in expenditures last summer. School budgets don’t have lots of “wiggle room”. Whatever gets budgeted, usually around November to January, is what is available in June/July to purchase materials. The way a school budget works is that many resources can’t be ordered until July so that those expenditures go on the correct year.

Thoughts

I’ve never been one to say that everything should be done online or through technology. However, I also believe that we may be missing out on many opportunities for kids by not training teachers on options that they have with students. Providing students opportunities to create, to customize an experience from them, can be truly powerful.

SPAM

According to the SPAM that I’ve received this week:

  • There is n 8 second warm water trick that will fix any bowel issues
  • There is a biblical mixture that will lower my A1C and reverse diabetes
  • There is one food that I need to avoid because it causes 10 TIMES the memory loss
  • The “elite” are following one simple protocol to reverse dementia. This was discovered by Elon Musk using AI.
  • A small breakfast change can reverse 90% of diabetes type 2, the catch is that it also lowers your A1C levels very quickly….

Photography

FLCC Field Trip to Vaughan Woods

I wrote this up on my Photography Journey Site. It was a nice experience and I learned a few things.

52Frames

This week the subject was “door”. I found a neatly stripped door to photograph and submit.

Subbing

I finally have everything set to sub. In fact, I accepted my first subbing position this week. I took a Kindergarten class. I really need to “up my game” on subbing. I learned a few things that I should’ve known already. We’ll see how things go from here.