A Band-Aid for a Broken System

The American education system is failing- and everyone knows it. The recent movie, Waiting for Superman, provided hundreds of statistics to prove the fact the our education system is failing more and more as each day goes by.

Among 30 developed countries, the United States ranks 25th in math and 21st in science. Not only that, but while other countries are improving their schools systems, education experts say the American system is getting worse. As was highlighted in the movie,  American schools, especially in the inner-city are currently being called ‘drop-out factories’. A dropout factory is a high school where more than 40 percent of the kids do not graduate. And that means that we have 1.2 million kids without a diploma leaving our schools. There are over 2,000 drop-out factories across the United States and this number continues to increase.

With poor educators come poor education. America is hurting- so what can we do? A young college student has an idea. iSchool seems to be a great alternative to the broken education system in multiple ways.  By using the iPad or iTouch schools would save hundreds of dollars on paper and books yearly. The number of apps that are available on the software will provide education for multiple learning styles all over the country. Teachers would benefit from the new technology as it will simplify the grading process, and will assist in lesson planning and classroom management.

It seems as though iSchool is a great alternative to our hurting education system. Though it will not fix every problem, taking steps in the right direction will decrease the amount of drop-out factories and will increase the number of high school graduates. 

A New Type of Classroom

Imagine getting your high school diploma without ever having to sit in a classroom. Imagine never meeting with your teacher in person like in the typical high school or home-school setting. Now imagine working at your own pace every day and waking up and eating whenever and whatever you wanted. It is hard to imagine an optimal environment where these characteristics could co-exist, but thanks to new online schools- it can!

When Beth Day ‘came to our classroom’ to speak about online schooling I was extremely hesitant. My thoughts consisted of doubt and unbelief. Beth Day answered every question that I had in my mind during her presentation, and I am thankful that we got to hear from her. Personally, I didn’t understand how classroom needs could be met in an online school, or how the classroom could possibly work successfully. After hearing her presentation I could fathom how these things could be done.

I think the positive aspects of Beth’s presentation exceeded my pre-judgments of what her classroom and job would look like. The fact that she is able to have a teaching job, and have young kids at home was very encouraging to me. My desire is to be a stay at home mom, but I also want to teach. I think this provides a great alternative to do both!

Though I appreciated Beth’s presentation I found fault with the system Ecot provides. I think that it is a crucial part of a child’s education to be immersed within a classroom to better their social skills. It is so important for children and teenagers to participate in a classroom setting, and not simply sit at their computers all day by themselves. I understand the benefits of working at your own pace and developing a good worth ethic, but it seems to me that being in a traditional school setting would be the most ideal and beneficial environment for most students in their education careers. 

The Future of the Classroom

Let’s face it. Over the course of the past decade the advancement of technology has been nothing but a rapid change that can be observed in any and every aspect of our culture today. The affects of the advancement of technology is showing up in the government, in medicines, in leisure activities, in research, and in the business realm. With all of these aspects of our changing culture, what directions should we be taking in the development of student minds? This question is ever present within school systems today that have the desire to develop the most advanced and prepared minds for the future.  Failure to recognize these concepts and continuing in the  utilization “out of date practices” (Roberson 885) not only is a negligent action but one in which students are being set up for failure. In Roberson’s article regarding the importance of technology within the classroom, he states the best classroom environment is, “a culture of possibility characterized by student-centered classrooms, flexible and interdisciplinary curricula, formative and authentic assessments, and a generative understanding and application of learning (Roberson 886). Roberson highlights in this article that it is crucial that teachers are no longer the center of a classroom in his understanding that students should be the centralized component of the classroom. In his article,  “Defying the Default Culture and Creating a Culture of Possibility”, Roberson conclusions point to the overall consensus that the advancement of technology will improve the classroom, and will continue to do so rapidly. He concludes that ignoring this inescapable fact is negligent behavior as technology will improve student achievement. (265 Words)