7 key questions to ask about ed technology, online learning
By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post
The outcry against exploitative online for-profit education is growing at roughly the same rate as the clamor for increasing amounts of educational technology — laptops, tablets, smart boards — from preschool to life-long learning. Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation is sliding into the “pro” and “con” mode of contemporary punditry. What we most need right now is to pause before we pontificate and to patiently untangle the many intertwined strands in the arguments for and against ed tech. By separating out different threads in this conversation, we can make better decisions about if, when, and in what situations we can really learn effectively online.
Here are seven key questions designed to help any parent or student sort out the competing interests that currently drive technology into our schools — or keep technology out of some other schools.
1. Who profits from the online learning?
If online learning is being championed because it enriches knowledge, we then have to ask if it really does. However, if it is being championed because it enriches shareholders, then we have to raise an entirely different set of concerns. This is one of most fundamental educational questions of our moment. Until we know the benchmark for success in any given situation—whether we are measuring student success or a healthy bottom line for the company’s owners--then the question of technology or no technology is basically irrelevant. Since so much online education is also for-profit, it is important not to blur the method with the motive.
2. What is the cost-cutting motive behind using technology?
This is a less cynical variation of the profit question. For public schools or even non-profit private schools, the issue often isn’t who gets rich off the students but whether or not using technology will save money, presumably by hiring fewer teachers. Here again we have to ask if the benchmark is student success. There is evidence that replacing a teacher with an online course can save money; there is no evidence that students taking an online course perform as well on either standardized testing or in subsequent retention tests for the content.
3. Is there innovative thinking behind a school’s adoption of technology in the classroom?
If the institution (whether non-profit or for-profit) is simply dropping expensive technology into the classroom without rethinking pedagogy — teaching methods, rules, models, content, and modes of student-teacher interaction — then students are not getting their money’s worth. Parents should not ask what devices are available to their students but how the devices are being used to enhance learning.
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