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Interesting idea
Apr. 5th, 2007 09:01 pmI was interested in what this article had to say about technology education since I have my own views on things.
It made a good point that it's simply not feasible to keep up to date with all types of technology that comes out since that changes so quickly and it's very expensive. This is good. I really, really don't think we should be teaching students all the latest technology gadgets since it usually results in the dumbing down of society. It creates people who use things and have zero understanding of what it's doing. Yes, we have lots of things that do that already and yes, most people don't have a clue how those things work and I think that's a shame. People need a good basic understanding of things and constantly taking shortcuts with technology doesn't normally help that. I see it all the time with the students. Thing is, they barely understand how things work, let alone what they really do.
A good example of why technology can be bad. Back in the late 80's there was a big push to put computers in schools because they were going to revolutionize how teaching was done and result in students who were superior to old ones. ROFL. That really didn't work out. Instead, they cost a fortune to maintain and deal with upkeep and results in students using them as per a script and then not having a clue what they really did. Now, schools are spending LOTS of money to keep these things running and up to date instead of spending the money in more important areas since that's what parents want done. For instance, we never used to have to worry about paper. Now, we have budgets and limits to how much and types of paper due to lack of money. Or, we can't keep science labs in as good a condition as we could since we have to spend money on the computers when we could be doing more cool things in the lab, etc.
You should learn the basics of how things work...that's what school is for. This also means that people should be taking more science in schools which leads to something interesting at the end of the article. There's always a mention of how so few people go into technology or science, particularly women. Well, in countries that require science every year you are in school graduate people who go into technology and sciences more often, especially women.
One of the reasons people do is quoted:
"They can't drop sciences," Evered said, adding that in Canada, "students are encouraged to drop subjects at schools," and math, science and technology courses are among the first ones most of them cast off.
"We need to look at making sciences mandatory" throughout secondary school, she said.
This is true of many students, as soon as they have their minimum science credits done, they never touch it again. Mandatory science may help with the gender divide in sciences and technology and would have the side benefit of graduating people from high school with a better idea of how things in the world really work which is a vital skill to have in today's society considering just how much technology we have.
I figure doing the opposite of more tech in schools will graduate people who know more than they do now. Feel free to disagree with me of course.
It made a good point that it's simply not feasible to keep up to date with all types of technology that comes out since that changes so quickly and it's very expensive. This is good. I really, really don't think we should be teaching students all the latest technology gadgets since it usually results in the dumbing down of society. It creates people who use things and have zero understanding of what it's doing. Yes, we have lots of things that do that already and yes, most people don't have a clue how those things work and I think that's a shame. People need a good basic understanding of things and constantly taking shortcuts with technology doesn't normally help that. I see it all the time with the students. Thing is, they barely understand how things work, let alone what they really do.
A good example of why technology can be bad. Back in the late 80's there was a big push to put computers in schools because they were going to revolutionize how teaching was done and result in students who were superior to old ones. ROFL. That really didn't work out. Instead, they cost a fortune to maintain and deal with upkeep and results in students using them as per a script and then not having a clue what they really did. Now, schools are spending LOTS of money to keep these things running and up to date instead of spending the money in more important areas since that's what parents want done. For instance, we never used to have to worry about paper. Now, we have budgets and limits to how much and types of paper due to lack of money. Or, we can't keep science labs in as good a condition as we could since we have to spend money on the computers when we could be doing more cool things in the lab, etc.
You should learn the basics of how things work...that's what school is for. This also means that people should be taking more science in schools which leads to something interesting at the end of the article. There's always a mention of how so few people go into technology or science, particularly women. Well, in countries that require science every year you are in school graduate people who go into technology and sciences more often, especially women.
One of the reasons people do is quoted:
"They can't drop sciences," Evered said, adding that in Canada, "students are encouraged to drop subjects at schools," and math, science and technology courses are among the first ones most of them cast off.
"We need to look at making sciences mandatory" throughout secondary school, she said.
This is true of many students, as soon as they have their minimum science credits done, they never touch it again. Mandatory science may help with the gender divide in sciences and technology and would have the side benefit of graduating people from high school with a better idea of how things in the world really work which is a vital skill to have in today's society considering just how much technology we have.
I figure doing the opposite of more tech in schools will graduate people who know more than they do now. Feel free to disagree with me of course.
