Digital Disconnect?

I just read the article in THE Journal about the results of the 2007 Speak Up Survey and was not at all surprised to read that large numbers of teachers, administrators and parents thought that they were "doing a good job preparing (their local) students jobs and careers of the future." Administrators, BTW, had the highest number of affirmations (66%).

At the same time - and here is the "disconnect" - students, particularly those in middle and high schools, believe "teachers are limiting their use of technology in schools" and that security practices "were limiting their ability to take advantage of technology for learning."

This got me to wondering how we in Maine are doing in this regard. After all, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars with our Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) - the "laptop program." One would expect that Maine would therefore be leading the nation in results. But at this point, I just don't know. I've asked the good folks at Project Tomorrow, who organize the survey, if it was possible to get state aggregated results. I'll let you know what they say.

In the meantime, here were some of the more striking survey results:

What teachers say...

• Most common use of education technology: homework and practice (51%). Ugh!

What students say...

• Following a trend identified in every Speak Up survey since 2003, girls in all grades continue to be more likely to identify themselves as having beginner or average tech skills compared to boys, and less likely to say “advanced.” Hmm.

~John Brandt

Comments

[helena]

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