Technology in the Next Decade

I found Larry Cuban’s article Public School Teachers Using Machines in the Next Decade to be very similar to the last article we read. It was basically questioning how much computer technology will be used in the years to come in elementary and secondary schools. Cuban points out that the reason that integrating computer technology into the schools has been slow is because school is an entirely different organization than worldly businesses that have boomed with technology. He reasons that in no country, or in no time in history have schools ever made quick leaps with technology. He blames this not on inadequate funds or unprepared teachers but on “dominant social beliefs about what teaching, learning, and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized for instruction.” My reaction to this is a good one. Technology is a wonderful thing but I think that if you let it overtake your teaching and rely on it for everything and add nothing of your own style into your day’s work than the kids will really be missing something. Kids need to learn skills that are outside of the computer world. Obviously I know that in today’s society that students must learn computer skills to even be able to get a job when they get out of school but I think that teaching all lessons with the help of computer technology is a mistake. There are so many great, fun, exciting lessons that can be taught away from the help of technology. I can think of several that my teachers did when I went to school.
Cuban predicts that the future of schools and technology will see “slow but dynamic changes in both teaching and school structures that will occur as more hybrids of old and new forms of instruction are merged with the next generation of computers.” I agree with him on this one. I think that the merge will come slowly enough so that teachers will have plenty of time to learn what they have to teach concerning computer technology. Amen!