Hi all!
As I mentioned in my free inquiry post, this has not been a great week for me. between the passing of my dog and the looming deadlines, I have been feeling dejected and have not been motivated to do much. Alas, I cannot put this blog post off any longer.
I attended Friday’s class with Luke and we discussed funding, and districts purchasing things like Chromebooks and Ipads for schools. Luke mentioned that a district in Burnaby (I believe) spent thousands of dollars purchasing a large number of Ipads that in the following years were rendered obsolete. I hate to sound like one of “those people,” but I have always resisted making the switch to Apple and probably never will. Stories like this only affirm my satisfaction with this decision. That is not to say that Microsoft does not do these kinds of things, I’m positive they do, but from the start, Apple has operated on a platform of exclusivity. It’s like a club: a club you need lots of money to be a part of. I think of the thousands of dollars these schools spent and suddenly, the hardware is no longer supported. Pardon my French, but what bullshit.
This got me thinking about whether teachers like myself may go the way of the dodo. This pandemic was taught us a lot of schooling can certainly be done from home. And if it becomes a safety and health issue (which at the moment it is) can we justify this traditional method of teaching? These advances in technology must, on some level, threaten our job security. I am sure that eventually, it will become cheaper to educate our students with programs rather than paying a human to do it, right?
I listen to the CBC a lot when driving into school on Wednesdays and I heard an interview with a school administrator that thinks parents and students should be able to choose which option they want. Many parents cannot stay at home to watch their children and have no choice but to send their students to school. Many children are thriving in remote learning programs and would prefer this style of learning. Therefore, the idea of having both options may be a realistic option.
This again brings up the question of funding and the role of technology in schools. School budgets are already tight and the idea of pumping more money into this kind of approach may not sit well with people. The question of privacy and an increase in personal information and data security risks is another concern. I would imagine that an influx in the use of online programs such as google classroom may compromise the safety of students and indeed their families. Parents, rightfully so, may resist the idea of sharing their children’s personal information or their own with these platforms.
So many things to consider. I will admit, I am uncertain whether I feel as though this is the right move forward. That said, there is only one way to find out.
As for my competencies for the week, I have checked off privacy and safety as it pertains to this subject and we talked about it in Friday’s lesson. I have also attached a CBC article that I read concerning the increase in online learning and how it has affected children’s learning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/virtual-schools-confusion-parents-1.5744361
wruttle October 30, 2020
Hey Phil, great post. I’ve actually been thinking (worrying) about teachers going obsolete for the past few years. I used to worry about this when I was teaching ESL because of the large number of programs that could essentially do my job for me.
But for teachers in general, I really hope our society doesn’t choose to go fully electronic. Removing the social aspect of learning with your peers, as well as making connections with teachers you’ll remember for the rest of your lives, seems like a huge mistake for society. I really, really hope the powers that be don’t choose to go that route, because there would be serious social consequences.