Discussion 3

Media Will Never Influence Learning
I agree with the previous comment, that the title itself made me disagree with the article before I even read it. Since I am in the media specialist program, I tend to believe media plays a pretty important role in education. There are countless studies about how important a media program is to standardized test scores in schools. But besides that, I believe this article is too outdated to even be considered relevant at this point in our technology revolution. I mean these studies were conducted 25 years ago, when most of our best educational technology was not even developed yet. Technology has become so much more interactive in the classroom. It is no longer just a "medium" it is a tool placed in the hands of teachers and learners. Clark talks a lot about money in his article. Yes technology is more expensive than pencil and paper, but school systems spend a lot of money on less effective resources. Millions of dollars is poured in "initiatives of the year," whether it be AMSTI, ARI, DIBELS, or whatever. There are cheaper alternatives for those methods of instruction as well.

When Each One Has One
I was really excited to read the introduction for this article about 1:1 laptop usage, since I teach at a school with a similar program. I did begin to get bogged down in all the statistical results from the study. However, one part that really interested me was the teacher interviews. I agreed with all of their concerns about troubleshooting technical difficulties in the classroom and monitoring internet usage, but I still think the pros outweigh the cons, just as these teachers did. I also agreed with the section discussed whether or not instruction had changed in the laptop classrooms. I think teaching methods are resistant to change. I think activities are easier to change than delivery method for teachers. That is probably the last part that comes along with the initiative. Teachers first have to learn to manage the laptops in the classroom, then they begin to incorporate the laptop usage into the lesson, for discovery activities, drill and practice, projects, etc. But at some point of mastery of the new technology the teacher learns to utilize his/her the laptops more effectively throughout all phases of instruction. I feel like it is overwhelming to try and do all this at one time, especially the first year of working in a classroom with a 1:1 laptop initiative.

~Danielle