Journal Article Review #1
Submitted by:
Carla Ramdat (SLM 521)
10/03/04
Snyder, David Pearce
(January, 2004). American School Board Journal: Technology Focus.
A Look At The Future 1-9.
A Look At the Future is an article that answers the question
about whether or not technology
is the answer to education’s (and other fields’ of expertise) long-term staffing
problems. The author starts with discussing how mandatory overtime, rehired
retirees and lowered recruitment standards are being used to meet the current
labor market shortages.
The author addresses
the concern of the hiring of qualified non-teachers (teachers with college
degrees that are not in the areas they teach) to meet the shortage in
the field of education. It’s disturbing to read on and find out that this
is expected to get worse since in the future, the K-12 enrollments are expected
to increase. David Snyder,
goes on to explain more detail about this concern. He states that hiring qualified
non-teachers does not appear to be the answer. He supports this statement
with information about how these personnel appear to be a part of the high
national turnover rate among teachers. He adds, “That if the workload increases
and we don’t have the human resources to meet that demand, we will be forced
to reduce the average amount of education that we deliver unless, we can increase
the instructional productivity of the resources we add to education”. Of
course, the answer to possibly remedy this situation is ……Technology….. “Technology to the rescue” as the puts it. He
goes on in more detail to discuss how (IT) information technology will be
hard for people who are skeptical about this to implement this form of education
but it will be possible for schools to fulfill their mission regardless of the challenges faced in education such
as funding, staffing shortages, testing and other education -related problems.The author goes on to discuss how IT will
be beneficial but there might be some difficulties encountered with training
individuals who are not use to using this new method
of education. One interesting fact he mentioned that supports the need for
IT is that contextual learning (learning skills in the context of practical,
real-world tasks and circumstances) including programs such as internships,
community assignments and computer simulations, have been shown to boost
academic achievement and reduce dropout rates. The author goes on to share
some of the IT applications already in use such as: broadband Internet, wireless
Internet and groupware.
Lastly, he shares the importance
of how now is the time to explore the ways information technologies can be
implemented. This will promote and maintain closer collaboration among educators
and employers that will help foster the connection of classroom learning
with community life. This, he says, will more actively
engage students in learning.