I’m familiar with the public school systems in one Team Blue-controlled coastal elite area (elite enough that some of the parents take their children on vacation via private jets). These parents could of course afford private schools, and many go that route, but some for ideological reasons will send their children to the local public school. Also the local public schools are closer.
In this public school system, the infection of technology has spread to even early elementary. As early as kindergarten, children are using iPads and Chromebooks and may have their own email addresses. By grades 1-2, they’ve progressed to some horrid program called Seesaw that lets you watch your children post things “in real time” and send you emails and upload scans of their work, etc.
Keep in mind, these children at ages 6-7 don’t know how to spell very well, their penmanship is poor, and their math skills remain at the addition and subtraction stage. But they will waste time in class “posting to Seesaw to share their learning” instead of learning useful skills. It’s worse than a waste of time; it’s a net negative because the time spent on a computer is at the expense of basic education.
My impression is that these are shiny new toys for the teachers to play with, and the district has the funds (thanks to ample parent donations) to buy them. And teachers may get written up in newsletters and parent emails as “innovators.”
This except from the linked article rings true:
Programs that give software to students do not “generate gains in academic outcomes” and programs using computer-assisted learning tend to “crowd out traditional instruction.” A broad study of sixteen different software products found that, after one year, students using the software did not have test scores that were statistically significantly better than students who did not, and some had significantly lower math scores after a second year.
For some reason, the local private schools seem more immune to this contagion.
I’m familiar with the public school systems in one Team Blue-controlled coastal elite area (elite enough that some of the parents take their children on vacation via private jets). These parents could of course afford private schools, and many go that route, but some for ideological reasons will send their children to the local public school. Also the local public schools are closer.
In this public school system, the infection of technology has spread to even early elementary. As early as kindergarten, children are using iPads and Chromebooks and may have their own email addresses. By grades 1-2, they’ve progressed to some horrid program called Seesaw that lets you watch your children post things “in real time” and send you emails and upload scans of their work, etc.
Keep in mind, these children at ages 6-7 don’t know how to spell very well, their penmanship is poor, and their math skills remain at the addition and subtraction stage. But they will waste time in class “posting to Seesaw to share their learning” instead of learning useful skills. It’s worse than a waste of time; it’s a net negative because the time spent on a computer is at the expense of basic education.
My impression is that these are shiny new toys for the teachers to play with, and the district has the funds (thanks to ample parent donations) to buy them. And teachers may get written up in newsletters and parent emails as “innovators.”
This except from the linked article rings true:
For some reason, the local private schools seem more immune to this contagion.