I just got this week’s Technology & Learning News and was saddened to learn that forces against children have dealt a crippling blow to efforts in Texas to equip its children with 21st century information and communication technologies (Textbook funds can’t be used for laptops). Urged by State School Board member, Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, the state’s attorney general ruled that funds set aside for textbooks can not be used to purchase laptops or other computer hardware. That official, Greg Abbott, said,
Funds designated for textbooks “must be used exclusively for the purpose of conveying information, including curriculum content, to students,”
Even from the shallow view of education as the act of pouring information into children so that it will spill out through their number 2 pencils, computers are devices that “convey information and curriculum.”
Perhaps I’m dreaming when I try to envision an education system that invites students into their future, through experiences that help them to develop the learning skills that will serve them for all of their life. Perhaps I should simply resign to the idea that the way of least resistance is what’s best for our children, and that way is backwards.
2¢ Worth!
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