45°
This is not merely a lament about the regrettable level of technology in our childrens academic lives. Or a pile-on about how all the focus on furnishing their schools with gadgets makes me feel dodgy. No, I actually have a plan. Its time to adopt a technology-free week in Westchester and Connecticut schools.
By now youre probably familiar with the prevailing assumption that technology in schools is a one-way ticket to accomplishment. Well, at least some folks who should know have a bone to pick with that. The New York Times recently told the story of a lot of Silicon Valley honchos who send their children to a school without any technology.
Get that? The children of the nations technology elite (including the chief technology officer of eBay, and employees of Google and Apple) attend a school without so much as one, thin microchip? Many Westchester and Connecticut schools should read it and weep. Between chunks of our stretched school operating budget and hundreds of thousands of additional funds in privately raised foundation loot, most are filled to the rafters with the latest and greatest in educational technology.
Unlike Silicon Valley officials, we seem to be doctrinaire about wanting our schools dressed to the nines in technology. While they the ones who invented to stuff, and should know better prefer to give technology the back-of-the-hand when it comes to their kids schools.
In fairness, we have something to show for all those school funds frittered on technology--like those tediously dull white board Power Point presentations during Back-to-School night, which are done in the dark for optimal viewing, thus defeating the entire purpose of Back-to-School night: attaching a teacher's face to the name. With that vaunted white board, we see little more than a shadowy presence.
Moreover, most teachers (and Im one in college) complain about the distractibility of students who use technology in class. Some have even advocated mirrors in the back of classrooms, to make certain students are using their technology for the good of academic tasks, not the evil of Facebook.
From the time I first started playing with technology in schoolit was a questionable academic concept. I was a student at Byram High School in Armonk when the school opened its first computer center. No one was certain whether to teach code or popular usage and, to this day, there is a lot of uncertainty. I spent most of my computer class time writing flirtatious on screen notes to my computer partner.
Of course, that was just after the earth cooled, technologically speaking. But even today, are we really doing something, by spending all this money on machines? Or are we causing other problems or, at best, just camouflaging a void?
At the very least, the fact that Google honchos don't want technology in their schools should give us pause, shouldnt it? The question seems to answer itself. In honor of the heirs of Silicon Valley fortunes, shouldn't out schools try out a technology free week? Whats the worst that could happen?
________________________
Marek Fuchs is the author of "A Cold-Blooded Business," the true story of a murderer, from Westchester, who almost got away with it. His upcoming book on volunteer firefighting across America, Local Heroes, is due out in 2012. He wrote The New York Times' "County Lines" column about life in Westchester for six years and teaches non-fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville. He also serves as a volunteer firefighter. You can contact Marek through his website: www.marekfuchs.com or on Twitter: @MarekFuchs.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwalk and receive free news updates.
