No Child Left Untableted

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/no-child-left-untableted.html?smid=pl-share

2. Category of Problem: Public Schools

3. Level of Problem: National

4. This Article Concerns: A problem/issue faced by children and families concerning the quality of education and the repercussions of greed in politics (policy making) and business interests.

5. Importance/affect on families/communities: This article highlights the key point issues being experienced by the field of education in our country. As technology gains a greater presence in our society it is also posing difficult decisions to be made by government at the national, state, and local policy making levels. One of the largest issues on the forefront of fire, is that there is not policy to regulate money hungry entrepreneurs from profiting off the sales of tablets to school districts; which as a result is causing a very large shift in the educational system's teaching methods, one school district at a time. This not only raises issues of diverse learning styles amongst students, but also issues over the widening gap of financially advantaged children versus the disadvantaged students.

6. My input: I believe that this article is a snapshot into the American habit of overvaluing technology and undervaluing people. I do not feel that the displacement of face-to-face interaction by virtual connection is going to result in any better test scores or marked strides of improvement that could possibly off set the expense of 15,450 tablets bought for each student and faculty member. Keep in mind that the tablets were in part paid for by a $30 million grant from the federal Department of Education's Race to the Top program.The tablets were created and sold by a company called Amplify, a New York based division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Joel Klein, is the Chief Exec of Amplify and an Executive Vice President of News Corporation, he candidly states frequently that education is "ripe for disruption." Something of concern to me personally is the new common-core standards adopted so far by 45 states, that defines educational goals for schools. This new policy I feel creates a dangerous opportunity for marketing and commercial opportunities for companies like Amplify. I am also concerned about the impact of the "tablet teaching" on retiring boomers who are still teaching in this field. The sheer amount of hours it would take to train older teachers how to instruct using this new device, and the re-structuring of all lesson plans that are involved would be very discouraging to many educators. Marketers of the Amplify tablet for classrooms would argue that, "Your job is no longer to dispense knowledge, it's to facilitate learning. No longer is the teacher the bottleneck between students and knowledge. Rather, the teacher architects the environment--in the classroom, on the tablet, online, everywhere." My personal argument is that this structure and mobility will give children the impression it is unimportant to attend class because, "I can do everything on my own at home."" If I have a question, my teacher wont answer it for me, I will be instructed on how to find the solution to my problem on my own, using the tablet." I dont think this technology should be allowed to trickle down into our school systems (coming with all of its ramifications) without a fight. This is a result of poor legislation and poor protection of the field of Education. We shouldn't have business deals among corporate companies and government be the driving force of change in Education.