By SARA CASLER
The late Steve Jobs, an innovator and leader in computer technology, left a legacy behind when he died. Along with a multi-billion dollar industry, he left his views on such important topics as education. Turns out, the man described as the mastermind behind modern technology did not believe technology could fix the problems with our education system. He could not have been more right.
Technology is not the best teaching tool. Maintaining and providing equipment for faculty, staff and students is hugely expensive in comparison to supplying and keeping an inventory of textbooks. It is also a short term fix, seeing as the average textbook lasts years longer than an iPad, even with the manufacturer’s warranty.
Schools, such as Weston Middle School in Weston, Connecticut, have put iPads and other such devices into classrooms, where in short term studies, they have proved to be successful in pace-setting, research and technological understanding for both students and faculty.
However, this study is still in the developmental phases, seeing as it has only been implemented for about a month. Even the longer term study only encompassed 22 students and started last spring, making the test results somewhat inadequate. There is not solid, long-term evidence that having a student constantly plugged in, both in and out of school, is beneficial by any means.
On top of a lack of sufficient evidence, there is the mountain of costs. To outfit the entire faculty and staff on campus with a population of 2801 students and 180 faculty and staff is initially an exorbitant expenditure. To purchase iPads for everyone, along enough AppleCare Protection Plan coverage to last through the students’ four years of schooling, the total cost for the school would be just under $2 million. $1,958,517 to be more exact.
Even if the school fitted the population with the less expensive, yet equally effective devices such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and enough protection coverage to last four years, the total cost would come to $861,449.38. Neither estimate includes shipping and handling costs, which cost plenty more for an order of this size. On top of all the expensive tablets and what not, each one will need to be fitted with the appropriate tools for school; downloading upwards of three eBooks, a word processor and wireless Internet service per student on each device on top of outfitting the school with wireless routers and services means a continuous spiral of costs.
On top of the over-the-top price tag, it is in fact healthier to carry a textbook or two to and from classes throughout the day by fitting in needed exercise. Statistically speaking, the most infamous of walks across campus is from the 1000 building to the back portables on the other side of campus, which computes to a distance of approximately 410 yards. Assuming the student making this walk has to spend a minute getting in and out of both classes and navigating hallway traffic, and spends another talking to his best friend, that leaves him four minutes to get to class.
To make it to class on time, he has to move at a pace of about three and a half miles per hour, the same speed as a competitive speed walker. Along with a backpack, at that rate, he is burning about 450 calories an hour. In those four minutes alone, he’s burned 30. In a society where 20 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 19 are considered obese, according to the Center for Disease Control website, every calorie counts.
Lastly, technology hinders brain and physical development in young children, and will be more of a hindrance rather than an advantage to young students. Sitting a young child of five or six in front of a computer screen or iPad and telling him to learn his ABCs is not going to be effective. According to Science Daily, nine out of 10 children under the age of two watch television regularly, and this statistic only increases as the children age. Also, a study of 1,300 children conducted by the author, Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, and colleagues in 2004, found a modest association between TV viewing before the age of three and attentional problems at the age of seven, after a wide range of other factors were ruled out. These problems only progressed as the child aged into adolescence.
The society surrounding students that wander the halls of high schools is reliant on technology, telecommunications and applied sciences of all kinds and varieties. Just for an experiment, ask everyone in one class period to empty his or her pockets; every single desk will have a device on it powered by batteries. That is a guarantee. But these electronics are not the best way to learn. Steve Jobs emphasized one major point in his battle against an unplugged classroom: no man made object knows how to teach like a person. Nothing can instill interests in students like a teacher or question like a classmate. And nothing is the same as digging through a library book with a bit of human guidance in search of the answers of the universe. There is no replacing the classics, no matter how shiny the replacements are.
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