This course has really made me think about schools in a different way. Many discussions we have had in class have shed light on various aspects I had never thought of. On factor that I thought came up in class were the out of school factors that effect students. It is very hard to motivate a child when you have no idea what is going on in their world. Teachers need to get to know their students on a personal level before they will let you in to start teaching the curriculum. The idea of involving the family in the class/schools is also key to success. Families need to feel comfortable with the teacher so both parties can work as a team. I believe home visits are one way to improve the relationship between parents and teachers. Parents feel threatened when they come to school for many reasons, but when you take time to come to their home it put things in a different perspective. Home visits are another thing to load onto the teacher’s schedules but could change students’ values about school. It will also strengthen communication between home and school.
As I think about what we discussed this last 10 weeks I think it comes down to two main things, out-of-school factors and school funding. Our whole concept of public school is awful in this country. As a country, we need to rethink our idea of schooling. One of the first weeks of class we defined schooling as a process by which a society achieves a desired outcome from the youth of their population. Currently in the US we have standards the students should meet but do not support them to achieve these standards. How can we expect children to reach standards when we are not supporting them in the process we want them to achieve? The community/society also must take responsibility for the out-of-school factors that students come to school with. Some of them are community problems that could be minimized if the whole community worked towards the goal. Especially low-income families are not receiving the support they need to take care of their families, therefore they are living in inadequate housing with violence around them all the time and may not have the funds for healthy nutritious eating habits.
Communities/society needs an overhaul of public schooling in the US.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Digital Divide
The digital divide has been a question experts have been asking for a while now. But recently the issue has not been in the spotlight because policymakers and schools are focused on No Child Left Behind.
Robert Fairlie’s research has shown that only 50% of blacks and 48% of Latinos have a home computer. The same study shows that 75% of whites have access to home computers (Digital Divide affects school success). Fairlie also found that “teenagers who have access to home computers are 6-8% more likely to graduate from high school then teens who lack access to a home computer”. Although this statistic is widely disputed, many outside factors play into the fact that a student does not graduate from high school. These factors would also concur with the reasons students do not have a computer at home. A family who can not afford a computer, is probably also not living in the best area of the city, going to the best school, might have a unique family situation, or the parents may not be well educated. All these factors also play into students not graduating from high schools. Hugh Glenn, of Pepperdine University, “calls Fairlie’s report neither a study or research, but merely a summary of data from previous publications” (Digital Divide affects school success). He thinks that there were too many factors that could have affected Fairlie’s research.
It would seem to make sense that students who do not have access to materials, such as technology would be behind in instruction. But there is no hard evidence about how technology increases academic knowledge. I believe technology motivates students to do work and that if used correctly technology allows students to express their knowledge through multiple intelligences.
The article Digital Divide 2.0, also discusses the misuse of technology in many classrooms- something the technology department in our school is really trying to put an end to. Many teacher are using the computers are glorified worksheets that are skill-and-drill. Technology and the use of computers should allow students to produce work that displays their individual understandings of concepts, not as a tool to ingrain information just to spit it out again. Having access to computers does not mean anything if you are going to use them as a glorified pencil.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36693&CFID=16661141&CFTOKEN=79907457
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02divide.h01.html
Robert Fairlie’s research has shown that only 50% of blacks and 48% of Latinos have a home computer. The same study shows that 75% of whites have access to home computers (Digital Divide affects school success). Fairlie also found that “teenagers who have access to home computers are 6-8% more likely to graduate from high school then teens who lack access to a home computer”. Although this statistic is widely disputed, many outside factors play into the fact that a student does not graduate from high school. These factors would also concur with the reasons students do not have a computer at home. A family who can not afford a computer, is probably also not living in the best area of the city, going to the best school, might have a unique family situation, or the parents may not be well educated. All these factors also play into students not graduating from high schools. Hugh Glenn, of Pepperdine University, “calls Fairlie’s report neither a study or research, but merely a summary of data from previous publications” (Digital Divide affects school success). He thinks that there were too many factors that could have affected Fairlie’s research.
It would seem to make sense that students who do not have access to materials, such as technology would be behind in instruction. But there is no hard evidence about how technology increases academic knowledge. I believe technology motivates students to do work and that if used correctly technology allows students to express their knowledge through multiple intelligences.
The article Digital Divide 2.0, also discusses the misuse of technology in many classrooms- something the technology department in our school is really trying to put an end to. Many teacher are using the computers are glorified worksheets that are skill-and-drill. Technology and the use of computers should allow students to produce work that displays their individual understandings of concepts, not as a tool to ingrain information just to spit it out again. Having access to computers does not mean anything if you are going to use them as a glorified pencil.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36693&CFID=16661141&CFTOKEN=79907457
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02divide.h01.html
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