Not everything that’s antique is considered valuable.
It seems that the technologically tuned in students of today simply aren’t learning enough from an old fashioned education system. The article featured in The Australian suggests that todays students are continually exposed to the virtual world of the Internet, hand held games and i-pods, leaving them to feel as though they step into a time machine when they go to school, particularly if most lessons consist of ‘chalk and talk’. Schools fortunate enough to offer technology to students in the form of personalised laptops boast of how much their students enjoy school. Some experts are claiming that the general lack of tecnhology within schools is causing the drop out rate to increase.
Image: ‘Big Wheels‘
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I believe that this article is in some ways exagerrated. Naturally, technology within schools needs to increase, there is no doubt about that. It is vital to teach students how to interact within their world and make learning meaningful, where technology has an enormous role to play. However, the article speaks largely of how involved students are with text messaging, online games and You Tube, which most would not consider to be of significant educational value. Technology can and does help students to learn. However it’s not the only way to learn. Surely there are some things in school, such as the all important tasks of reading and writing, that need to be conquered with good old fashioned books, pen and paper.
Source: Dearne, K. (2008). Hi-tech children tuning out of ‘horse and buggy’ education system. The Australian. Retrieved October 12th 2008 from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23651226-27646,00.html
October 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
[...] recently read a great blog written by Tania titled ‘Not everything that’s antique is considered valuable’. Tania refers to a recent article in the Australian that poses the question about the lack of [...]