Re: Technology in the Classroom – A new way to learn (News, Jan. 26)
This article is, in my opinion, somewhat misguided and ill-informed.
What was shown is not a new way to learn; it is learning in a manner that is 100 years old – with the teacher in front and the children all sitting in their desks watching.
The picture you provided in your article illustrates my point. The act of teaching that we see is the exact form of teaching that took place in one-room schoolhouses.
Using expensive equipment to teach in this same manner does not make this “21st-century learning.”
The SMART board does not necessarily make for better teaching and learning, nor does using clickers, an electronic method of taking a multiple choice test, qualify.
I am sure Ms. Porter is doing the best she can with the outdated curriculum she must teach, but for you to call this, “a new way to learn” is misleading to your readers and is nothing but false advertising for SMART Technologies.
It is an old way to learn and a way for SMART shareholders to make a profit from educators looking for a non-existent quick fix to truly bringing education into the 21st century.
You interviewed students who are impressed with this new technology (kids always are), but like coloured chalk and overhead projectors, the shine on the SMART board will soon wear off, leaving nothing but an out-dated, irrelevant curriculum in its wake.
It is imperative that as adults we look beyond these shiny new toys and assess whether the new technology will have any lasting benefit to our students.
Katy Connelly
Oak Bay