In our elections this past week, my state voted in favor of a measure to take on new debt in order to spend 2 billion dollars on technology for our schools.
What's interesting is that each school district in the state will be able to apply for their share of this money with a unique technology plan. That is, the district will come up with a plan for how to use technology to enhance student learning, and the state will then give them the funding to carry it out.
Some schools will almost definitely see their first need as upgrading their internet access. According to one editorial, more than half of New York state schools currently do not meet the lower bound requirement of having an 6 Mbps connection. (Not per person, mind, 6 Mbps for the WHOLE SCHOOL). Forget multi-media applications, that's not even enough speed for any fair number of people to have the most basic internet access.
In reading the recommendations by the commission that will oversee this spending, I'm a little disappointed to see no mention of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. I've long thought of BYOD plans, when well executed, as a cost-effective and integrated way to bring technology in the classroom. There are a lot of negative myths about BYOD out there, but there's ample reason to believe that a well-planned Bring Your Own initiative can offer huge benefits.
I'm worried that this may be a case of a wanting to "buy technology"--the idea that if the state spends this money on bandwidth upgrades and mobile devices, they'll have something concrete to show for it. Being able to show a picture of productive children typing away on school-owned Chromebooks may be good politics, but it's not necessarily driven by the best education thinking.
Some schools will almost definitely see their first need as upgrading their internet access. According to one editorial, more than half of New York state schools currently do not meet the lower bound requirement of having an 6 Mbps connection. (Not per person, mind, 6 Mbps for the WHOLE SCHOOL). Forget multi-media applications, that's not even enough speed for any fair number of people to have the most basic internet access.
In reading the recommendations by the commission that will oversee this spending, I'm a little disappointed to see no mention of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. I've long thought of BYOD plans, when well executed, as a cost-effective and integrated way to bring technology in the classroom. There are a lot of negative myths about BYOD out there, but there's ample reason to believe that a well-planned Bring Your Own initiative can offer huge benefits.
I'm worried that this may be a case of a wanting to "buy technology"--the idea that if the state spends this money on bandwidth upgrades and mobile devices, they'll have something concrete to show for it. Being able to show a picture of productive children typing away on school-owned Chromebooks may be good politics, but it's not necessarily driven by the best education thinking.