I always enjoy reading Clarence Fisher’s blogs and since week two focused on “access”, I felt that this blog was a prime example of how important access is :Remote Access: Choosing Tools. Clarence provides insight into the important role technology plays in today’s educational system. He also talks about his take on it as a parent of a child who needs access in order to succeed.
After reading this blog entry, I really began to see how an individualized computer for each child could be very benefical. I also have a ten year old son which was “lucky” enough to get a laptop for christmas. I have noticed that he too enjoys school work much more because he likes to “research” topics. (don’t get me wrong, that is not all he does – most of the time is spent on games). I have not let him take it to school yet because I am not sure of his responsibility level. But I will have to say that my son also goes to a school where his laptop would be more than welcome.
As we look at access, we need to really stop an assess how many of our students in classrooms today really have access. We also need to stop an look at how many of our educators and leaders are promoting access. I think that Clarence Fisher ask some fairly interesting questions in this particluar blog entry:
But what if Alexander attended a school where he was not allowed to bring in a laptop from outside? What long term disadvantage would he be in because of these policies? What effect would that have on him and his learning? How will it effect his vision of information, of access, of learning with his having access at his desk to the world from the age of ten?
As educators, we need to ask ourselves these questions. When we think of disadvantages because of the lack of access it would be too numerous to count. It used to be that different places throughout the United States progressed at different rates because of where they were located. For example, I lived in Michigan and my cousins lived in rural eastern Kentucky. When I would come to visit, I had access to many different things that they haven’t even heard of yet (i.e. music, popular toys, etc.) Many of the “technologies” back then hadn’t made it to the rural areas of the US. We really don’t find that in today’s society and mainly that has to do with “access”!
January 27, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I read this article too and it made me wonder what his son’s future would look like if he didn’t have access to the laptop. It would seem that nowadays access is becoming a necessity instead of a luxury. When the Internet first came around and dial up was the most popular form of connection, we had many problems that made it frustrating to even try to get on sometimes. My dad keep saying the same statement, “Well, I’m just going to cancel it if it keeps up.” But, nowadays, the world is so intertwined with technology that just letting go would do more harm than good. Sure, it is frustrating sometimes, but it usually gets back up and going within a decent time frame. We have to ask ourselves sometimes what is necessary for our students to succeed and if the answer is technology then so be it.