Frank has a great post over on Geekwire that does a great job of explaining why Dumbo Drops of tech don’t work in schools.
The question he didn’t completely address is why do people keep making this mistake?
One explanation is that a massive initiative that “attacks” a “problem” is far sexier than a thoughtful program to incrementally improve classroom practice. Don’t forget that many Superintendents are politicians. These things get headlines.
Last Tuesday the Secretary of Education said
“I think we should be moving from print to digital absolutely as fast as we can over the next couple of years. Textbooks should be obsolete.”
He was clear that he sees the digital transformation in schools as a “critical game changer” for the American education system.
He gave three reasons for the advocating a rapid shift:
When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made room in his schedule on short notice to keynote the Council for Exceptional Children’s annual convention in Nashville this week it sent a clear message that students with special needs will be front and center in policy decisions from the Obama Administration.
The biggest message was his presence. It left no doubt about how seriously Obama and he feel about improving the lives of students with disabilities. This was welcome because much of the work they have done in this area so far has not been particularly visible.
He laid out a vision for the Administration’s education legislative priorities and the central role that serving people with disabilities will play in ESEA (aka NCLB). The linkages between ESEA and IDEA that were created during the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will also be strengthened and improved.
The Education Business Blog