Week 1 Discussion 2

Based on my readings, I noted that Technology is seen as a cure-all for

all of educations troubles, and as such NCLB moved forward by
providing a huge amount of money in technology area’s to fix the
problems. “ NCLB act highlights the potential of technology to improve
children’s educational performance. In 2002, more than 700 Million
was made available to states and schools through the Enhancing
Education through Technology program, along with 2.25 Billion through
the e-rate initiative that provides low-cost Internet access to schools.”
(Miner 2003)
However throwing money at a problem seldom fixes a problem in a
quick cost efficient manner, and can lead to excesses and later
recriminations about why the Money didn’t fix the problem? Without
control, direction and expert help new technology can be wasteful, and
not that helpful after all. “The NETS° T Project states, “ The world is
different. Kids are different…. Learning is different…and teaching must
be different too. Today’s classroom teachers must be prepared to
provide technology-supported learning Opportunities for their
students”. (NETS°T, 2002) I must say that I have to agree with this
quote in depth, without training and direction the best technologies
can be wasted, misused, and become a stumbling block to the
educational process.

We had a blind student, who wanted to take chemistry. At first I had

no idea how we could handle this handicap and still provide some
realistic educational experiences. One of our balances was hooked up
to a computer so weights could be
spoken as auditory words instead of a digital display, based on this and
several other tools we came up with and idea’s that the student
provided we were able to provide a very basic chemical education, not
all hurdles were overcome by this process but many more than I would
have thought possible. The most important thing I rapidly learned in
this whole process was that in order to implement technological
changes in a rapid fashion an expert of that technology is needed to
help the teacher, understand and adapt to the new processes. Could I
have done this on my own, yes maybe but not in the time allowed the
only way we succeeded was to develop a team to help us integrate,
adapt and understand the best ways to use these technologies.

Michael Garlick Edu 620

References:
Miner, B. (2003,Spring). Keeping Public schools public: Privatizers’
 Trojan Horse. Rethinking Schools, 17(3) Retrieved January 6th,
2010, from Http://www.rethinkingschools.org

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, Retrieved

March 29, 2002, from Http://cnets.iste.org/pdf/page24-25.pdf