Mort Zuckerman, the editor of US News and World Report, is downright giddy about the potential of the Web in education. It’s always nice to be affirmed by the MSM.
Students who have mastered the wonders of the Internet at home know that with a desktop computer they can do everything faster–take and save notes, write and do research. With guidance, kids can learn these skills at home, especially when high-quality interactive programming becomes more widely available in science, history, math, geography, and languages. There is much work to be done in creating these electronic assets, however. And it is critical for teachers to join the revolution–to adapt information technology to the methods and content of their instruction.
Um…yeah. But the most glaring omission here is any mention of the kids who don’t have the tools or the access. And then there’s this little riff on how we do it:
To extend state-of-the-art approaches to every school in our new technological universe we also must deal with cost. Even though laptop prices are plunging, schools are going to have to develop innovative budgeting at both state and local levels to acquire the funds for technology, training, and programming.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Now that’s an answer.
Some days I’m more cynical than others. Today is one of those days. Might be fatigue, overwhlemedness, the scope of the problem, state of the nation, whatever. Hopefully it’ll pass before the ETC2C podcast tonight…
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