"Talent is universal, Opportunity is not"
The author brings up an important discussion about how technology creates a digital divide. If we all had access to the same technology, would we have the same opportunity?
The author noted a campaign in 2013 that took place within the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide iPads to all students. This occurred one year after I graduated from high school, and while I was leaving the K-12 system my own school district was instituting this same type of campaign similar with the "one laptop per child" campaign and each student in grades 6-8 were given a laptop to use for the remainder of their time in the district.
Flash forward 3 years I am now a senior in college, this campaign has clearly expanded as one of my roommates is student teaching at an elementary school within the school district I attended for K-12. Each student in her 3rd grade class has a Chromebook to participate in lessons on. The math program has been completely redesigned as to how math is learned and taught. There is no doubt that technology is incorporated into every lesson these students have and will have in the future.
This personally makes me sad. We hear all about how the younger generations are growing up behind screens as opposed to when I was growing up and spent my days outside until the sun started to set. I personally feel that the way I learned in school caused me to think critically and allowed me to develop a strong sense of problem solving on my own. This has allowed me the ability to create my own opportunities. Often today it is too easy to turn to a computer for all the answers.
While at least we live in a western country that we have access to be able to look things up that we don't know about and are able to learn and develop knowledge on particular subjects, the downside is that we have adapted to having less problem solving skills and a smaller work ethic. And I believe that work ethic plays a huge role in creating opportunity.
This was a really interesting post to me because it got me thinking about the ways in which education is changing. I agree that today's children need to learn a balance between their digital lives and the real world. However, I think technology is being implicated into lesson plans and into teaching approaches, so an entirely new way of learning is developing right before our eyes. I think it's also important to remember that today's children will grow up in their own world and own era, which is becoming increasingly digital, so it will be important for all of them to have technological skills.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It is crazy how younger generations are completely growing up behind screens. If it’s this bad now I can’t even imagine how much screen time they’re going to have as technology progresses even more. I think that it’s necessary to spend time away from computers so that you can learn how to think without them, or else you just become lazy and rely on them for everything.
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