Amber-+Turned+On,+Plugged+In,+Online,+and+Dumb

**__Turned On, Plugged in, Online, and Dumb__** by Mark Bauerlein Original Article Notes By Amber Henrey (Not in Summary Form YET)

Serious neglect in Writing according to a 2003 article by the National Commission on Writing.

Billions of dollars spent in America due to poor writing in the workplace.

National Educational Technology Trust “to pay up to 90 percent of the costs associated with providing…technology needed”

Not enough improvement (in academic gains) in comparison to the large amounts of money being spent to improve technology in the schools (modernization)

Computer availability in the home shows a strong statistically negative relationship to math and reading performance and computer availability at school is unrelated to performance. 2004 economists at the university of Munich study that included he US.

May 2007 Richmond Virginia Highs school drops laptop program after 5 years because “failed to show any academic gains compared to schools without laptops” according to the New York Times.

October 2007 Boston Globe reported that in Main, state standards, writing scores made large gains due to teacher training in integrating technology into instruction HOWEVER the article failed to report reading scores dropped and math scores stayed the exact same. AND on another test, the national standards test, the writing scores actually shrunk.

Content area knowledge has diminished. Students asked basic historical questions and they were not able to.

“Failing our Students, Failing America” a civic literacy project did the testing and found that 54.2 percent was the average score. The test was considered “knowledge expected of responsible citizens”

“Losing America’s Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century Again College Seniors were given a basic multiple choice history test (name one general at the battle of Yorktown- George Washington. Only 33% answered correctly)

More than half of high school seniors earned a “Below Basic” score on the 2006 NAEP test in history.

( My Question for debate that we would face with these stats: Are they testing schools that use technology? Are they lumping all schools together? The article doesn’t clarify) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The spending money that Generation Y possesses and the access to information with the press of “search” buttons makes “all the ingredients for informed citizenship and tasteful consumerism BUT:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“No generation has experienced so many techno-enhancements and produced so little intellectual progress.”

__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Responses Section **__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“There will always be virtuosos- whose personality and style make them unique. For these Teachers technology probably does not have the same potential to increase their effectiveness as it does for the vast majority of their colleagues. But how many of these stars exist?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">MB responds: “…technology is the prime mover in the future of education but how it is to function best remains and open question. Still that hasn’t stopped education systems from throwing millions of dollars into the rewiring and digitizing of schools. Shouldn’t we wait for more empirical study of the best practices before going any further?”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“There’s no laptop in the world that can teach writing. (And no website either!)”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“Technology are the tools we use everyday that need to be “ubiquitous an invisible”. They don’t make you smart. Good teaching is the key. Pedagogies and assessments are in the greatest need of renewal. These are the things lacking. As long as we continue to use traditional testing to measure achievement, it will be easy to point fingers and work on improving the wrong things.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“One cannot drop a could computers into a classroom, change nothing else, and imagine some magical outcome.”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">“Ideally write for an audience that will respond…(internet)” however isn’t that what the good teacher did/do? My best motivation in writing was knowing that I was going to be getting feedback from my teacher. If it was a good teacher I wanted the feedback to be positive. If it was a bad teacher I wrote well so that whatever negative comments they mad I could argue back.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Generation X hasn’t faired well either and they didn’t have the same technologies. It could be the “psychological” ideology changes that have arised (whole child, egocentric, nurturing vs. latch key?) not just technology. (What about nutrition and pollution…can we blame basically everything fog the dismal performances of education?)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Independent book reading rates have dropped.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">New generation=different interests and tastes. <span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">(Possible but does it change the fundament ability to learn? Wouldn’t we till be able to learn if we were sitting a Plato’s table versus a laptop?)

__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Personal side note: **__

<span style="background-color: #00ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Until we improve the quality of our teachers than add in technology than technology is a waste of time. An excellent teacher can teach with nothing but themselves and their knowledge. They are adaptable and thoughtful in their approach to teaching. A bad teacher has a hard time teaching with nothing let alone all the TE available and supplies in the world. I’ve seen it first hand and I personally have been through the moment of “oh no! I can’t teach!” to “ wow that was a great lesson I just whipped out of thin air!” To further that thought, shouldn’t students be able to learn with nothing to look at and do? Just listen? Just discuss? Students should be able to learn in a variety of ways, and sitting and listening is a valid way. I do not see technology as the answer. It is a tool that can be useful IF teacher knows how to use it fluidly, not distracting from the true learning process. It is simply a dog and pony show to attract certain learners.

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