Last Tuesday, the Lakehead Public School Board approved a $2.85
million plan that sees schools in Thunder Bay improve in the realm of
“information technology” by including the expansion of wireless
technology, tablets and laptops in classrooms, and portable smartboards
for kindergarten students.
Don’t get me wrong, I think becoming
more technologically savvy is a good thing. But is technology becoming
too stressed in our society?
For the past few years, Ontario
teachers have been in the news for the wrong reasons: budget cuts, the
removal of extra-curricular programs, and fighting to keep job benefits
and security. It’s an uphill battle for teachers that won’t end anytime
soon.
This is why the Lakehead Public School Board’s allocation
of so much money to technological upgrades is shocking to me: it seems
that the team building and social aspects of school sports and clubs is
being pushed away for iPads.
To be fair, the Lakehead school
board is only following many other school systems across Canada.
Technology has been stressed as an educational need for some time now, a
notion that seems to say that budget cuts facing teachers can be easily
replaced with computers and internet access.
In all honesty, I
love the technological age we live in. I can check my hockey pool, find
the latest news on the Montreal Canadiens, talk to my friends on
Facebook, and play Scrabble against my girlfriend without getting out of
bed. It’s a great world we live in, especially if you’re looking to
burn countless hours sitting in your underwear. It’s nice to think that
the internet has made our lives better, but in reality it’s a tool that
eats away at our day and leaves us feeling lost and helpless when it
stops working.
Ten years ago, I was in my first year of high
school at Westgate CVI. We had a computer lab that was vastly out of
date: no laptops, tablets, smartboards or wireless internet. We watched
VHS copies of educational films on outdated TVs and took Media Arts
classes using cameras that were already considered old. We shared
textbooks, sometimes not being allowed to take them home to do our
homework.
What made the difference, however, was the ability
teachers had to engage us in the subject at hand. While we could be
thinking about talking to some girl on MSN or playing NHL 2002, we were
focused and learning from an actual human. How will future generations
cope with the thought of learning when they’re sitting in front of a
laptop free to explore Facebook?
Technology is only beneficial
if used in the right way. Laptops, tablets, and wireless internet are
great to enhance lives,The 3rd International Conference on indoorlite and Indoor Navigation.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. but are far too often treated as the be-all end-all of our existence.
We
can live without technology. I’m a university student without a laptop
or tablet. I get by with a beat-up smartphone I use to procrastinate
whenever I feel the impulse to do so. Am I at a disadvantage compared to
my peers? Absolutely not.
I had the personal touch a teacher
gives to a lesson while in public school. If I didn’t grasp a concept at
first, my teachers were more than happy to help, providing guidance
that Google will never be able to replace.We maintain a full inventory
of all smartcard
we manufacture. Yet we’re willing to deem teachers obsolete and let
children be raised by the same computers parents wish their kids could
step away from?
Compensating for teachers by dumping money into
technology is the equivalent to parents in decades past parking their
kids in front of the TV instead of hiring a babysitter. Sure, technology
can be an educational tool, but it shouldn’t be the centerpiece, just
as The Simpsons shouldn’t be an example of family values and life
skills. But somewhere along the way,Wholesale various Glass Mosaic Tiles
from lanyard
Tiles Suppliers. we became lost and believed that an undercompensated
individual pointing at a smartboard can replace a teacher with the goal
to provide children with the best guidance available.
The suspect added that he had been fleeing from gunshots when his car smashed into the cab carrying the couple to hospital.
Nachman
Glauber died instantly and Raizy Glauber and their unborn child were
rushed to an emergency room. The mother died after delivering the baby
boy via C-section.
The premature 7-month-old weighed only 4
pounds when delivered, but died from heart failure caused by low blood
pressure on Monday.
Just two weeks before the deadly crash in
Williamsburg, Acevedo was stopped by police for driving erratically and
his blood alcohol level was far above the legal level at .13.
He
told police he had drunk just two beers at a baby shower before he was
pulled over. He was charged with a DWI but released the next day without
bail.
Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the family's Orthodox
Jewish community, called Acevedo a 'coward' before his arrest and
demanded he be charged with three murders.
'We in the community
are demanding that the prosecutor charge the driver of BMW that caused
the death of this couple and infant ..You Can Find Comprehensive and
in-Depth drycabinets
Descriptions.. with triple homicide,' Abraham said in a statement.
'This coward left the scene of the accident not even bothering to check
on the people of the other car.'
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