Editorial: Let’s study technology differences

Published 9:01 am Thursday, May 10, 2012

 

How much better would today’s students perform in school if their lessons were delivered via state-of-the-art technology?

While that’s certainly not a new question, it is taking on an interesting perspective locally for a couple of reasons.

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First, as reported in the April 28 Times, Cathedral High School next year plans to provide every seventh- and eighth-grader with MacBook Airs, which they will use through graduation.

Second, providing students with a high-end laptop computer for up to six years of their K-12 education certainly raises the bar on the vast array of technology different local schools provide to their students.

So will Cathedral’s approach pay off at a better “return” than other districts using less or no cutting-edge technology?

Even though Cathedral is a private school, we hope its leaders are willing to share their answers to that question in the coming years. Why? Again, because the level of technology area schools provide to students varies immensely.

In fact, Central Minnesota seems like a great place to do some case studies on how technologies help (or perhaps not help) kids become better students.

Here are just a few “upgrades” made within the past few years in Central Minnesota:

• This year, the Little Falls school district spent $1.1 million to provide iPads for every student in grades five through 12. Adding these roughly 1,600 popular tablets also meant adding a $40-per-student technology fee.

• The Becker school district has about 800 iPads, one for every high school student. It also uses iPod Touches and iPod Shuffles in lower grades.

• The St. Cloud district is using iPod Touches in some classrooms as well as for students new to the country and learning English. It also has few dozen iPads in special education and early childhood programs.

As we have noted previously, it is important to track the broad impacts of these technologies.

For example, how will Cathedral’s MacBook plan compare to iPad use in Becker and Little Falls? What will all three of those schools gain over schools that do not have access to such upgrades? What will they spend to maintain them? And what about schools and families who simply can’t afford upgrades, at-home Web access, etc.?

Again, it’s not a new challenge for schools to try to use the latest technology to improve learning.

But amid so many different school environments, it would be good to determine the priority level for making such improvements, especially when resources can be limited.

— St. Cloud Times, May 7