This article is based on the initiatives of
former President Clinton, to meet two critical goals for our nation which
are: 1. Provide 21st century learning tools for every child in every school
2. Create digital opportunities for every family and community. However,
there are many problems with this idealogical idea, the foremost of which
is that many teachers as well as students do not have a great deal of knowledge
as to how to use the internet as a resource, which makes it difficult to
use it effectively. Mila Stoicheva makes the observation that if
we don't overcome such obstacles quickly we will be leaving students without
the necessary skills of advanced technology and they may be unable to become
a part of the modern socioeconomic system. She has also seen that
"the patterns of technology mirror the exsisting inequalities rather than
mitigate them" with students in the "high-achieving" classes getting much
more access to the internet than the "average" or "low" classes.
In order for all children to have the internet as a learning tool, their
needs to be an effort made to break from the trend to let only advanced
classes use the resources and allow for all classes to benefit from the
empowerment, motivation, and interest that the computer lends to a lesson
plan.
I agree with this article's statement that the internet
and its resources aren't being used enough in the classroom, nor are they
being used effectively with all students in all classrooms. I think
that teachers should be required to learn about the capabilities of technology
and keep up with them in order that students will be taught in the ways
that will be most relevant to them in the world in which we are living
and the job fields in which they will one day partake. At this rate
it is the students who will have to teach the teachers how to effectively
interact with today's socioeconomic system. Another issue I see is
that most taxpayers and schoolboards lack the vision and/or funds to get
better resources for students to use, which would enable the initiatives
of the former President to take place. Until we as a society are
able to support our ideas with the necessary funding and "put our
money where our mouths are", then the changes will be very slow in
coming.