By Austin King
As new technology is further incorporated into classrooms in Kyrene, Arizona, test scores have stagnated. The results coming from this school district should be forewarning to a nation obsessed with powerpoint presentations, tablets and e-books.
With over $60 billion invested in technology for classrooms in the last two decades, an important question needs to be asked. Is technology necessary to learn? The answer is simple, no.
While many students learn in different ways, a tablet is not a necessary component for any child to learn. Those who spread a doomsday outlook on education without technology are invested in the products themselves. Critical thinking, learning how to read, understanding math problems – all of these essential parts of education do not need technology.
Interestingly enough, while initiatives in education are pushing technology, new research is showing college students have a concerning drug-like addiction to technology. “Unplugged,” a study conducted by the University of Maryland, found that nearly four out of every five students had mental and physical pain when asked to abstain from using technology for one day.
In fact, a survey by the technology firm TeleNav found that more than 50 percent of Americans would surrender chocolate, alcohol and caffeine for a week before they even considered parting with their phones. Trying to mix education with gadgets that are tied to the “social” aspects of life is a recipe for disaster.
When considering the massive budget cuts in education around the state of Florida in recent years, it would be truly heartbreaking to know how many jobs could have been saved if students our priorities weren’t school-issued laptops and new iMacs for classrooms.
From 2008 to 2012, Florida ranks sixth in the nation in budgets cuts to education, down 18.1 percent. This makes it just as surprising that state education officials have proposed a five-year plan that will move all school textbooks to digital by 2015.
David Simmons, Chairman of the Senate Pre-K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee said recently, “Digital is here. We can choose to ignore it, or we can choose to embrace it.”
All these unnecessary changes to education paint a bleak future. Florida classrooms will closely resemble your local consumer electronics store: Laptops, tablets and other mind-numbing gadgets. You won’t find any sales associates though. They’ve already sold the people they needed most – our legislature.