| Over the past couple of weeks, two articles appeared in The New York Times about the use (or lack) of technology in the classroom: “Out With Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District,” and “A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute.” Both articles address the growing concern over the extent to which grade school curricula should revolve around technology, each with a very different response. The first article, “Out With Textbooks,” profiles Munster Indiana’s school district’s switch to an entirely computer based curriculum. The latter, “A Silicon Valley School,” features the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, California, which bans the use of computers and projection screens in favor of “a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks.” While each article presents valid arguments for both methods, each school’s version of extremism emphasizes and glorifies one type of learning while neglecting many others that are equally as valid. |
