The Everybodyfields-Everythings OK
Class and Broadband
While most schools in the United States (in fact, 98 percent) have basic Internet access, for many that access is cripplingly slow–too slow to accommodate technology-driven educational initiatives–according to a new report from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). The group is recommending certain baseline figures for adequate bandwidth for schools and proposing policy changes to effect upgrades over the next five to seven years.
SETDA, an education technology advocacy group based in Maryland, released its report, High-Speed Broadband Access for All Kids: Breaking Through the Barriers, to call attention to the “critical” issue of broadband access in schools and to get stakeholders prepared to achieve growth in the quality of broadband that schools need in order to take technology-based learning to the next level.
Dave Nagel, Tech Association Calls for Greater Broadband Access for Schools, the Journal, June 2008
This is a report that I wanted to note even though I don’t have much to add. It seems like more of the same. I think, though, that we can’t be reminded often enough that whenever we hear about a problem, say, the lack of funding for public schools, the impact is always shaped by class.
I am reminded of this each time I read a piece celebrating Web 2.0. There was a nice reflection on talking with students about these sorts of issues earlier this month at the Education and Class blog. I liked the excerpt from Borderland, as well as the comment from Urban Scientist.
John McCain: A V.O.I.S.E. for Change
Forget textbooks and handouts. Forget No. 2 pencils. And if you’re looking for curricula for science or English class, you’ll need to go online. At the VOISE Academy, a new high school opening this fall in Chicago, classwork is guided and shaped by the tech tools of the twenty-first century, providing an intriguing glimpse at what schools may look like in the future.
With the help of outside funding, VOISE (Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment) will bring the best online education offers to a real-life classroom. Each student will have a wireless-enabled laptop for use at school; those without a PC and Internet access at home will have that provided, too. With tech as the backbone, designers say, VOISE will make learning what it should be: student directed, project based, rigorous, and relevant.
No More Pencils, No More Books: A School of the Future Readies for Launch, Edutopia, Sara Bernard
I almost couldn’t believe my ears when the left press, starting with Mother Jones, pointed out that John McCain considers himself “computer illiterate.” He’s proud of it too, more evidence of his maverick standing.
After nearly eight years of the violent attacks on public schools embodied in the No Child Left Behind fiasco, it’s sickening to think of a president who will simply not understand initiatives like the V.O.I.C.E. Academy.
I think McCain’s willful ignorance is the worst sort of continuity with the Bush regime. Why do these sorts of men keep getting nominated? A very American anti-intellectualism: a fear of knowledge among the powerful.
Our health care system is ruined and Bush simply ignores it, as if the ruin is the point. The same with the housing system and the social welfare system and the trains and the highway and bridges and the public schools.
It’s as if Republican’s decided to apply a little of capitalism’s’ famous creative destruction to selected targets in the public sphere. Piece by piece it all falls. And, just to be sure, nominate leaders who won’t– can’t– notice.
Sinead O’Connor & Shane MacGowan – Haunted (ZANG 65)