Students First
Aug
22
Written by:
8/22/2008 7:27 AM
This summer, educators gathered in Seattle to reflect on
the tenth anniversary of Anytime, Anywhere Learning, Microsoft's
initiative to put laptops into the hands of middle and high school
students. The pioneers of this program, of which I was one, aimed to
dramatically alter instruction, empower teachers, and engage students.
These days, however, the emphasis has shifted from using technology
for instruction to employing it to assess, track, mine, and present
data. I agree that those applications are necessary to meet new
requirements such as No Child Left Behind, but it concerns me that they
are becoming the dominant use of technology in education. Data-driven
decision making, while important, should not diminish the use of
technology in classrooms or drain scarce resources from instructional
technology. After all, you do not make a pig fat by weighing it.
So how did we get ourselves into this predicament? Let's start at
the beginning. In the mid-'90s, schools were anxious to get powerful
new technologies into the classroom. Unlike the previous generation of
instructional tools, these technologies had the potential to redefine
basic interactions between students and teachers. They offered 24/7
access to information and empowered students with previously
unavailable research resources. They pushed educators to redesign
instruction in order to connect with students of the digital generation.
By the same token, technology providers quickly formed partnerships
with districts to create appropriate offerings. In many cases,
drill-and-kill products were replaced by tools that encouraged the
development of higher-order thinking skills. Likewise, the more
cutting-edge schools altered traditional staff training in order to
equip teachers with the skills to reinvent instruction.
My former school district was an early participant in this
adventure. We developed a technology plan, built our infrastructure,
and trained staff. We purchased computers for home use by staff and
created a lease program that provided students with laptops. The
driving force behind every effort was to change the classroom, change
instruction, and improve student achievement.
That is not the case today. Data warehousing, multiple
report-generating capabilities, instant analysis of assessment tools,
and class profiling have become the watch words. Programs that give
information, statistics, assessments, and reports are the focus. They
are readily available, user-friendly, powerful, expensive, and
necessary to meet the data requirements of current educational
philosophy.
Unfortunately, these management programs are upstaging potentially
powerful instructional technologies—tools such as handheld computers,
tablet PCs, cell phones, and wireless networking. Schools and districts
are being forced to choose how to use limited technology funding, and
data management is winning out.
The question is: What good does it do to give teachers detailed
information about each student via technology if technology is not an
integral part of instruction?
Over time my former district has become more focused on creating a
technology infrastructure that supports management needs. We were once
recognized for instructional innovation but now must join the
data-producing horde. Technology has become a tool to measure our
progress toward the national obsession of data management and
high-stakes test results.
Given the choice of impacting instruction or creating databases,
what should be chosen if resources allow only one choice? I contend
that technology should first serve the needs of students and only after
that the needs of the system.
Herman Gaither is the former superintendent of Beaufort County Public Schools in South Carolina.