I have always heard of schools trying to integrate more progressive, technological advancements, but I have never heard of an entire school being dedicated to solely technology, at least in the highschool setting. A school in the Napa Valley of California is dedicated to this educational approach. They even names the school New Technology High School, NTHS. I can see the benefits of using technology as a way to enhance and better help students not only learn, but also help them be prepared for the more up in coming technology based market after school. However, I do have several questions about this type of approach as many others may as well.
1.) Does the limiting of standard test taking and other assessments overall help these students, or just get them dependent on one way of learning?- I feel that as a good educator, you need to have an array of assessments and other teaching techniques that enable students to learn properly and effectively. By being so dependent on powerpoints, online testing, or creative website designing, this is presenting a new way for students to creatively express their knowledge, but what if some students are more linguistically, auditory, or verbally more expressive or apt to learn in such ways.
The way I see it is that even with this technology, we can still promote other traditional ways of teaching and assessing. What is great about technology is that we are able to do so much with it. I feel that this school should be more clear about being open to all types of learners, not just those who are savvy with the newest technologies. From reading this article, I do feel that this is a very unique and helpful way to get students comfortable and well prepared for our upcoming technologically dependent world, however it should not simply be seen as a tech school.
2.) In the article it states that there are other clubs, sports, and activities for these students to do, like a "normal school", however these types of things are only available at local community colleges, like Napa Vally CC. If this school enabled certain activities and other activities like most high schools offer, would it be a more well rounded facility, and more realistic? - I do feel that this would enhance the school and its overall student population experience, however I would think that budgeting would be an issue. Most clubs and sporting activities require money from the school and their available budgets. This may be why this school does not offer, but this is just my opinion. I feel that with all of these high-tech technologies and computer applications, it is pricey.
Tell me what you think about this. Would you like your children to attend these types of schools if they become more popular? Do you think the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages from these types of schools? What are some other disadvantages?
If you would like to view the original article, I have put the link below!
http://www.newtechhigh.org/about-NTHS.html
I do agree that schools need to offer a basic ground or foundation on technology to our students, but I am highly skeptical and not as supportive of creating a school based solely on technology. We are a society that is so depenedent on technology, and I feel that this much dependence on technology will cause students to lose touch with alternate ways of learning. What would happen if we did have a power outage, or someone is asking a challenging question, and they do not have the electronics to solve it, then what? I would like my students to be able to solve problems or find alternate ways of understanding and solve problems other than depdening or refering to technology. Also like you mentioned in your blog, not everyone is created equal, and do not learn as effectively with technology as they would with other forms of teaching. One size does not fit all, and I do not feel teaching solely with technology is the best strategy. Again, I do belive since we are a technological society, and our students do need to understand how to use it as a basic foundation, and if they want to pursue using it, I am all for it. I still feel, however, that we need to incorporate other alternate strategies within our classrooms as well so we can include everyone in our class, especially since one size doesn't fit all.
ReplyDeletePS- I love the blog! Great Job!