IT’S THE SCHOOLS. Paul Davis on the Sad State of Technology in Schools. The comment below from my friend Paul Davis (the guy I go to when I have a math problem I can’t think through) is so on the mark that I am posting it as a separate piece. Paul is an applied mathematician by training. He has been helping CT schools with technology issues. As you will see, things are not good in the schools.
I am hoping to visit with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings again in the next weeks and will ask what they are doing to help. My belief, however, is that the solution has to come from local parents, students, teachers, administrators, and boards of education. So get out there and raise hell about this. This may be the single most important issue for our kids future employability. We can’t afford to get this wrong.
I would love to hear from you about your experiences, both good and bad, with technology in the schools. Please send me your comments.
JR
PAUL’S REMARKS BELOW:
JR,
I’m sorry I wasn’t aware that you would be talking about this on Squawk Box before it happened. Many of my clients are Connecticut public school districts and it has been my observation that the quality and breadth of technology and communications resources in the school systems, even the wealthy ones, is quite poor.
The two weakest links seem to be teachers themselves and the communications/networking infrastructure. Most teachers are only minimally proficient in using computers themselves. I’m not talking about just the computer science teachers here, but rather the entire teaching staff. The result is that the kids learn about computers primarily as a technology – a discipline in it’s own right – rather than as an adjunct to all their classwork.
An art teacher should be able to show kids how to draw and paint with computers, how to process photos, how to do research on Monet, how to detect forged paintings and digitally modified images. but an art teacher can’t do that if he/she isn’t proficient with the technology himself.
The second weak link, communications/networking, is really an infrastructure issue. Usually each school building is wired and has a computer lab which is used for computer training of students and staff. Wireless communications within the building are rare. Communications between school buildings in the same district are problematic at best. This makes broadcasting of video and audio material difficult, if not impossible.
The district’s IT guru invariably spends a tremendous percentage of his time just trying to keep the network functioning. Very few districts have fiber between school buildings and the Board of Ed. It’s too expensive for them when they have uncontrollable, non-discretionary costs like Special Education to cover.
It is a sad state of affairs.
Paul Davis
I would be interested in John’s thoughts on privatizing education. Jim Coome’s post identifies many difficult steps needed to fix public education. I believe if I could identify the portion of my taxes that go to public education and put them towards private education of my children I would have plenty left over to donate to excellent non-profit education programs.
I also believe that broadband internet access ushers in a new era of education possibilites. My 14 year son is learning how to develop web applications from a series of “webcasts” produced by an individual who clearly explains the subject.
We’re homeschooling, spending only 5% of what public schools spend per student and no more time than public school parents spend every night dragging their kids through the busy work. Our kids are ahead by a long shot in math, writing, reading and sports.
This is true of perhaps 95% of all school boards in this country. People have to start talking and acting on these issue’s fast…it’s almost to late!
It’s very sad indeed.
Good! Now we have a prime example. I would venture to say that this example would apply to all other subjects/diciplines as well.
NOW! What are the necessary steps needed to be take in order to rectify this problem??? What I find is that 99.9999% of the time people know about the problem but only 0.0001% of them have got a logical, economically substainable, long term solution! So, I am going to take a stab at an outline to do this.
1) We have to re-educate the parents!
2) We have to get the total media to publish articles/TV news pushing an outline/agenda somewhat like this one.
3) The parents have got to get mad enough to fire the principals, PTA board, educational board of directors, etc. Fire a few extremely bad teachers, then fight the teachers unions, the local courts, the state courts, etc. to get these bad/incompetent people fired with only their walking papers in hand, at the end. NO back pay, no state benefits, no nothing, just gone!!!
4) Find the “RIGHT” group of people to come up with an educational program/subject outline/curriculum that logicaly fits the needs of the near furture.
5) Go out into the local business community to find out what they will need in terms of educated workers AND what they have to offer in terms of equipment, building supplies, paint etc. in order to offset the cost of education. (in the past, this is where the schools got many things, FREE of CHARGE!)
6) Change/get rid of the laws that prevent the disciplining of unruly children by the pricipal/vice-principal. ie. get the paddle back in the schools.
7) Any public elected officials that try to fight this, re-call them, vote them out.
8) Any media outlet that tries to fight this -BOYCOT THEM, TURN THEM OFF, CHANGE CHANNELS, DON’T BUY THEIR PRODUCTS!!! If you think about it, the media is one of the major culprits that got us in this problem to begin with.
9) This problem is so long-term bad that you must discuss this problem with everyone you meet. (people are so busy being politically correct that they no longer discuss major problems with each other.)
The time to talk about the problems should have ended 30 years ago. 30 years ago we should have been implementing solutions not dicussion!