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   Gerry McGovern (gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2023 13:59:18 JST Gerry McGovern

   While Google executives aggressively peddled crappy e-waste Chromebooks to schools, they sent their own children to low or no-tech schools, just like the rest of the Silicon Valley elite. Why? "There is little robust evidence on digital technology's added value in education," a just published UN report says. We vastly overestimate the power of technology, whether in education or global warming.

   https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0726/1396640-tech-schools/
   https://goodmenproject.com/uncategorized/silicon-valley-parents-choose-low-no-tech-schools-thats-probably-not-the-tech-policy-at-your-kids-school/
   https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23691840/us-pirg-education-fund-report-investigation-chromebook-churn

   • Embed this notice
     Gerry McGovern (gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2023 16:55:58 JST Gerry McGovern

     in reply to

     • Ben Ford :grinchsmile:

     @binford2k That's true. Wisely used in the right areas, tech can indeed add value to education. However, the general drive of tech is to replace rather than augment the brain and body, and everything is about fast profit by creating this constant "innovative" churn of technology.

   • Embed this notice
     Ben Ford :grinchsmile: (binford2k@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2023 16:56:00 JST Ben Ford :grinchsmile:

     in reply to

     @gerrymcgovern I think this take goes too far. The pen didn’t “add value.” The typewriter didn’t add value. The word processor didn’t add value. But what they did do is reduce friction for the things that DID add value. The tech world today would do well to remember that difference. Because better technology CAN improve learning as long as we realize that it’s not some kind of end goal in itself.

   • Embed this notice
     Gerry McGovern (gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2023 22:20:44 JST Gerry McGovern

     in reply to

     • Carla Finesilver
     • Ben Ford :grinchsmile:

     @finesilver @binford2k They're great points. Where useful, absolutely use technology. But for a lot of students, the benefits versus the costs, are hard to find.

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     Carla Finesilver (finesilver@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2023 22:20:46 JST Carla Finesilver

     in reply to

     • Ben Ford :grinchsmile:

     @binford2k @gerrymcgovern Low tech classrooms do a profound disservice to the equitable inclusion of neurodiverse & Disabled learners (and others). People would deny them e.g. changing texts to fonts & colours that support an individual's visual processing needs, voice typing + TTS, autocaptioning for auditory processing support, mind mapping tools, cloud storage of notes? Just a few things off the top of my head, that reduce barriers to participation.