This article makes me think of two things. First, who is the person making the decision to purchase all these iPads while teachers are being laid off and second, what is the trail of money behind such initiatives.
In so many cases, I find that the people making decisions directly affecting education have no experience in the field of education. I am fairly sure that the person who decided to spend all that money on iPads has never set foot into the classrooms we are in every day. They have never dealt with a classroom that has six students identified, or needing to be identified, several students who come to school every day without breakfast and sometimes dinner the night before and some who are latch key kids in grade 1. This is the reality of my school. Am I under the impression that putting an iPad in the hands of these kids will create successful lifelong learners, no. Being in a class of fourteen students where the teacher has the time and ability to connect with each student in a meaningful way throughout the day, often providing some much needed love and stability for the students, yes. Smaller class sizes regardless of technology would create students better capable of coping and adapting with the changes in the world, technological or otherwise. It makes me wonder who really is behind the surplus of funds to provide technology to the masses.
I spend time each year teaching students to assess and review website for credibility and we often talk about who is funding a site or funding the research quoted on a site. If the research shows that drinking milk every day increases your brain power but then after digging and digging, you find that the study was funded by the dairy council, is it really a valid study? Same with a situation such as iPads in the classroom. If, upon digging and digging, you come to realize that an apple executive “has the ear” of someone in education decision making, is it any wonder that iPads are sweeping the nation? Really, one must only influence a select few school boards, either the large or the influential and without fail, many more will follow. This whole situation is just so sketchy. We as a union, a profession, a collection of interested parties must remain connected and advocate for what we know is right (and I am not a rah, rah union person).
I think the most important point of the article is that teachers need to take up their space on the Internet and get their stories about teaching out to the public. This is not stories of complaint or for political lobbying, these would be stories of the day to day life of teaching and how teachers demonstrate resilience and persistence in the face of sometimes insurmountable odds. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with having access to iPads for teaching and learning. They might even be used to make sure kids have a breakfast or lunch program at the school by generation public support for such initiatives. Public perceptions of teaching have been shaped by an absence of teachers talking about teaching and learning.