Recently, I read a few articles about the future of education. In each case, the author was predicting that the massive collection of knowledge of the Internet would make traditional schools obsolete. Teachers and schools will become unnecessary. I don't claim to be any kind of visionary, but there are many reasons this prediction will not come true.
During my teaching career, I experienced the entire "technology in the classroom" movement from the first arguments over allowing use of small four-function calculators in the classroom, to the introduction of the first computers for classroom use, to graphing calculators, the developments of the internet and the World Wide Web, interactive white boards, iPhones, iPads, etc. I heard the predictions and I've watched what actually happened. Consistently, the reality falls far short of the prediction.
The Internet is by no means a new educational tool. The Internet has existed for many years and its benefits for teachers has been advanced for all of those years. In the early days, once school computer became prevalent enough to allow for 1 or 2 computer labs and schools could access the Internet, there actually was a short period of time when students and teachers frequently used this educational tool. There are many excellent educational sites that have provided wonderful lesson plan ideas and materials for classroom use.
It didn't, however, take very long for parents and schools to discover that there was a major problem developing with allowing open access to the Internet. Those of us who are naive and always see the good and the positive potential in people, and who expect the same from everyone, were caught off guard by the arrival and rapid increase in the amount of pornography on the Internet. Suddenly, we had students watching porn in our school libraries and computer labs!
You can argue First Amendment Rights all day long, but that won't change the fact that the majority, if not all, parents do not want their public--paid for with their tax dollars--schools allowing, even providing, porn to their children. The solution to the problem became and will continue to be the #1 reason that schools or any educational facility--even homes--will never be able to use the full educational potential of the Internet: FILTERS!
I wish I could make that word as big and flashy as it needs to be to convey the full impact this has made on the educational uses of the Internet. While parents demand tighter and tighter controls on what their children can access at school and are finding the need to do likewise at home (as witnessed by the rapid increase in the number of websites devoted to providing filters for home computers, iPods, iPads, etc.), the "Internet Bottom Feeders" keep developing ways to circumvent those same filters. (My growing cynicism is telling me that the people providing the filters are likely the same ones making the filters necessary.)
The list of valuable educational sites that have become unavailable continues to lengthen as porn sites appear with every possible mis-spelling or keystroke error a student might make. The length of the list of seemingly harmless words that now have to be filtered out would shock most of you.
Is the Internet set to eliminate teachers and schools? Certainly not anytime in the foreseeable future. With much of their internet access now heavily filtered, it has become very difficult for students to do any meaningful, valid research.
There are many other reasons that the Internet is ceasing to be a viable educational tool for children. The Internet becomes more dangerous to our children every day, and the information found there is often false or plagiarized. Sources can no longer be trusted. These issues will be discussed in other articles; but for now, schools and teachers are more important than they have ever been for the trusted, truthful exchange of information.
During my teaching career, I experienced the entire "technology in the classroom" movement from the first arguments over allowing use of small four-function calculators in the classroom, to the introduction of the first computers for classroom use, to graphing calculators, the developments of the internet and the World Wide Web, interactive white boards, iPhones, iPads, etc. I heard the predictions and I've watched what actually happened. Consistently, the reality falls far short of the prediction.
The Internet is by no means a new educational tool. The Internet has existed for many years and its benefits for teachers has been advanced for all of those years. In the early days, once school computer became prevalent enough to allow for 1 or 2 computer labs and schools could access the Internet, there actually was a short period of time when students and teachers frequently used this educational tool. There are many excellent educational sites that have provided wonderful lesson plan ideas and materials for classroom use.
It didn't, however, take very long for parents and schools to discover that there was a major problem developing with allowing open access to the Internet. Those of us who are naive and always see the good and the positive potential in people, and who expect the same from everyone, were caught off guard by the arrival and rapid increase in the amount of pornography on the Internet. Suddenly, we had students watching porn in our school libraries and computer labs!
You can argue First Amendment Rights all day long, but that won't change the fact that the majority, if not all, parents do not want their public--paid for with their tax dollars--schools allowing, even providing, porn to their children. The solution to the problem became and will continue to be the #1 reason that schools or any educational facility--even homes--will never be able to use the full educational potential of the Internet: FILTERS!
I wish I could make that word as big and flashy as it needs to be to convey the full impact this has made on the educational uses of the Internet. While parents demand tighter and tighter controls on what their children can access at school and are finding the need to do likewise at home (as witnessed by the rapid increase in the number of websites devoted to providing filters for home computers, iPods, iPads, etc.), the "Internet Bottom Feeders" keep developing ways to circumvent those same filters. (My growing cynicism is telling me that the people providing the filters are likely the same ones making the filters necessary.)
The list of valuable educational sites that have become unavailable continues to lengthen as porn sites appear with every possible mis-spelling or keystroke error a student might make. The length of the list of seemingly harmless words that now have to be filtered out would shock most of you.
Is the Internet set to eliminate teachers and schools? Certainly not anytime in the foreseeable future. With much of their internet access now heavily filtered, it has become very difficult for students to do any meaningful, valid research.
There are many other reasons that the Internet is ceasing to be a viable educational tool for children. The Internet becomes more dangerous to our children every day, and the information found there is often false or plagiarized. Sources can no longer be trusted. These issues will be discussed in other articles; but for now, schools and teachers are more important than they have ever been for the trusted, truthful exchange of information.
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