CD: Radiohead, "Kid A"

Here's my day in a nutshell. This was posted at another topic out of necessity, but since I wrote it twice, I should post it twice...



Frederick Schrock
16 October 2002
SSE 540
Journal Article
Dr. Fusco

Education, Summer 2002 v122 i4 p674(6)

The Technology Hub: a cost effective and educationally sound
method for the integration of technology into schools. Joseph
S.C. Simplicio.

This article introduces an idea which should be more of a reality
in grade schools: the technology "hub", a center at the school
where information can be accessed and transferred by anyone
involved with the school, whether inside of it or out. Many schools
already have some form of a hub installed or planned; numerous
schools have practically replaced their libraries with "media
centers" where computers take the place that rows of books once
held.

There are many benefits to the technology hub. The author
mentions that teachers can write tests onlin for students to access
later, possibly in a resource room setting. Parents can go online
and see what assignments their children have to finish for the
week. Students, teachers, and parents can utilize a school's
website for district news, library resources, or to communicate by
E-mail if there are any problems.

What the article emphasizes is the use of Internet media as a
medium for this exchange of ideas. This has not come to fruition
yet in public schools. Library media centers use poor filtering
systems that block out pornography (sometimes) but also
research articles on Margaret Sanger or Adolf Hitler. In turn,
E-mail is also banned. Websites of schools often go a semester
or more without being updated.

The most frustrating thing about the current situation is that the
technology that is used is often not compatible with what the
students use at home. I am writing this paper right now in a West
Seneca district school that lacks a PC. A copy of the Simplicio
article remains in a floppy disk in my jacket, as the Macintosh
cannot read the .pdf file it is stored on. I would E-mail the article to
myself, but the filter would not allow it. Uploading this paper to an
Internet site that I could access later resulted in one of many
messages warning me that anything I click on could be viewed by
a third party, which somehow erased the completed first version
of this essay. It will not be until schools accept online
communication for what it is meant to be, and not treat it like a
closed-circuit television channel, that the rewards of having a
computer in every classroom will be realized.