Due to the
digital age’s continuous growth across all aspects of society, there has been a
big push to implement heavier technology-use within the classroom. In this article published in The New York Times in September 2013,
Carlo Rotella analyzes the effects of providing iPads and tablets to every
student and teacher and evaluates whether these educational tools will improve
or worsen the quality of education in America. Rotella completed his undergraduate degree at
Wesleyan University and later received his PhD from Yale University. He now teaches English at Boston College. Over the course of his
profession, he has given lectures in foreign countries, published notable
books, and has received numerous awards for his brilliant work and articles,
which regularly appear in various distinguished newspapers and magazines. For Rotella, a scholar interested in American
history and committed to perfecting his own teaching style, this issue about
improving American education is a topic he holds to the utmost importance.
Rotella
titles the article “No Child Left Untableted” to emphasize that many groups
believe that the 1:1 tablet-to-student programs will achieve the goals first
introduced by the “No Child Left Behind Act” back in 2001. Although this dramatic increase in use of
technology in the classroom immediately strikes Rotella as a bad idea, he decides
to ignore his bias and ventures out to research the issue further to better
understand the impact of these changes. He
travels to Guilford County, North Carolina to focus on the how Amplify, a
company that creates tablets and other educational products, affects their
first paying customer, the large school system in this county.
The first
step of Rotella’s investigation was to sit down with Joel Klein, the CEO of
Amplify. In this first interview, Klein
sells the idea that tablets have the power of customizability. He claims that tablets can be tailored to
each child’s needs and rate of learning, so that each student will be taught
with the method best suited for him/her. Klein goes on to talk about how students’
enthusiasm for the tablets should not be overlooked. He believes tablets could maintain
the students’ engagement and will quell boredom by allowing them to explore
further into their studies. Rotella
then talked to other educators and asked about their feelings toward this
movement. One teacher Sally Smith had
tried to avoid the change but eventually realized that there were benefits to
the technology and that she would have to adapt to teaching with technology if
she did not want to get left behind. He
also talked to Greg Anrig who wanted to highlight the relationship between successful schools and the connectedness
among the people of the school. He
believes that students could become too focused on the device and isolate
themselves, but with the right engagement between teachers and students, the
tablet could also enhance interactions.
Finally, Rotella addresses many of the teachers concerns that the technology
will overwhelm them, weakening their ability to teach well and implement it
effectively.
I believe
Rotella examined this issue very thoroughly.
As he went back and forth weighing the pros and cons of this new
program, it became clear to me that there is not a clear answer to improve
education. Rotella began with an almost
completely negative view on this program but concludes with an understanding
that the success of a tablet is possible depending on how it is exploited,
which is in the teachers’ hands. Online,
I found tons of feedback and comments from readers, most often teachers or parents, who feel very passionate
about this issue. Overall, the general
consensus among readers was that tablets would primarily be distracting and
would hinder the education of young children.
I think I would agree with Rotella and most of the comments and say that
the teacher’s role is the most important factor in education and that some classes could be
enhanced by technology while some might be impaired.
More info:
(a lot of comments by
New York Times readers)
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