Journal sweatyboatman's Journal: PDAs in the classroom
The debate over whether to allow PDAs or sophisticated calculators in the classroom is as confused as the goals of high school education.
Should the goal be to teach the kids:
A) to think by themselves
B) how to get the right answer
C) how to use advanced tools
D) the underlying concepts in many subjects
E) specific problem-solving devices
F) how to solve a multiple-choice problem
In the end, no matter what they set out to do, they end up just baby-sitting. Because one teacher can't teach 40 kids anything in an hour. But he/she might just be able to keep them from running around the halls.
My high school experience was essentially a waste of time academically. I got good grades and was an honor student, but I can count on one hand the classes that interested me (5 out of 64) -- not counting phys ed.
If a teacher considers that a child needs to focus to learn. She needs to be interested and needs to feel like she's accomplishing something, earning more than just a grade. Otherwise she will just do the least work neccesary.
But teaching kids 7 completely disparate subjects each day? Are you kidding? No child can focus like that.
They will flit from classroom to classroom, and their minds will approach each subject from the common denominator of rote memorization. The way one thinks about American History isn't the same as the way one thinks about Calculus or French or Chemistry. "Yes," someone might say, "It requires a context shift. But that's not unreasonable." Except the child isn't aware of that requirement. It all blends together into one long, confusing, jumble.
Using a PDA wont change the education experience at all. A PDA or a calculator is just a tool. The student might be able to get the right answer faster or easier or with less knowledge, but getting the answer isn't the point of the class. It's knowing how to do something, the process of learning, of using the tools available. That's the point of education.
If the only way you can figure out how to teach kids is by handicapping them back to the 17th century, then fine. But if the handicap is imposed because it makes it too easy to get the answer than you might as well not teach the subject. In their future lives, your students are going to need to know how to approach a problem, how to look for solutions, how to evaluate tools and apply them to new situations. That would be the most powerful knowledge you could impart.