Blog #6 - Summarize two of today's articles

Today we read “Al Gore: Should Schools be Wired to the Internet?,” “How to Bring our Schools out of the 20th Century,” “New iPod Rules Touch off Heated Debate,” and “Where Phones in Class are Ok.” Al Gore’s article is about how schools rank in regard to helping students prepare for the future. While the title says, “should schools be wired to the Internet?” Gore starts out with the assumption that schools definitely should provide computers and Internet to students. He provides statistics from rural schools, minority serving schools, and schools overall. I immediately found it interesting that only 27% of classrooms overall have computers and Internet, and Gore says that some people think computers and the Internet are frivolous luxuries. That is simply insane in my book because I can’t figure out how a school can spend an enormous figure on an athletics department but can’t find any money for computers. Which one is really frivolous? Which one really adds to academics?

Another article we read was “How to Bring our Schools out of the 20th Century.” What is important here is to recognize that the 20th century refers back to the 1990’s. We have been out of the 20th century for a long time now. In fact, we are seriously heading into the 22nd century. Don’t you think it’s crazy that we would be talking about this now?!? It seems to me that we should have already figured this one out. According to this article, 21st century skills include things like knowing about a global economy, being creative and innovative, being smarter about new technology and having good people skills. It’s rather fascinating that these have been the skills most necessary for future advancement. It’s also rather interesting that the academic discussions are still focused on measuring how well students are doing in math, reading, and writing. Where do these things fit in the 21st century? I wonder how they will join these other skills and which will be more important?