What Tech Should Be In a Fifth-Grade Classroom?

theodp writes "While going about my day,' writes Slate's Linda Perlstein, 'I sometimes engage in a mental exercise I call the Laura Ingalls Test. What would Laura Ingalls, prairie girl, make of this freeway interchange? This Target? This cell phone? Some modern institutions would probably be unrecognizable at first glance to a visitor from the 19th century: a hospital, an Apple store, a yoga studio. But take Laura Ingalls to the nearest fifth-grade classroom, and she wouldn't hesitate to say, "Oh! A school!"' Very little about the American classroom has changed since Laura Ingalls sat in one more than a century ago, laments Perlstein, echoing a similar rant against old-school schooling by SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. Slate has launched a crowdsourcing project on the 21st-century classroom, asking readers to design a fifth-grade classroom that takes advantage of all that we have learned since Laura Ingalls' day about teaching, learning, and technology."

Need Teachers who understand Technology

[Roger W Moore]

What we need is less technology in Elementary School. Not more.

No, we need better, more sensible use of technology. This does not necessarily mean less but it does require teachers who both understand technology AND how to use it properly to enhance teaching. For example, several years ago, I was in doing a demo of an orrery to show my kid's primary school class about the solar system, phases of the moon and seasons and finished off with showing them Google Earth. The teacher and kids were amazed and I quickly had them doing trips to anywhere in the world, seeing the Pyramids, flying down the Grand Canyon etc. It's an excellent way to teach geography and get the kids interested in learning.

Sadly though I more typically see teachers using calculators so early it hampers development of basic arithmetic skills, or playing games which are little more than interactive ads for toys (WebKinz!) "because it teaches them how to use the web"! This is not entirely their fault either when you look at the quality of the technology training they get - although some of it is. I being, temporarily, on the technology subgroup of my daughter's school council the overwhelming feeling I got was that the school knew technology was "good" and so they wanted some but had no clue (or plan) for how they would use it.

Until we can correct this ignorance and get teachers better educated in the use of technology (there are some out there, although these are usually not the ones involved in training others!) it is hard to argue that there should be any technology in a grade 5 classroom because if it is used in ignorance it is far more likely to get in the way of learning rather than enhancing it.

Re:all kinds of distractions

[iksbob]

Personally, I think the drive to remove all distractions is is a symptom of poor teaching methods. Students are looking for distractions because they're bored. The material and method presented in the classroom should be interesting and engaging enough to hold the students' attention. In my mind that means something interactive. Listening to the teacher lecture or filling out a worksheet is not interactive. Nearly all of the high-tech educational material I've come into contact with has been a digitized version of that same non-interactive material.
High-tech classrooms could be useful, but not without a fundamental change in teaching styles. I would say that the change in teaching style is far more important than the equipment. In fact, many classrooms are already equipped to support such changes. How many times have you looked around a science classroom and wondered what the various equipment was for, and if you'll ever get to use it? Did you?
I think the good teachers may be afraid to adopt such teaching methods due to the school system's obsession with quantitative assessment. I think the bad teachers would be afraid because it would require them to deviate from their scripted norm and actually engage their students, which might expose their incompetence.

Re:And technology?

[Reaperducer]

Only, instead of doing that in a school which forces you to take a variety of useless subjects that have nothing to do with your desired profession, do it while homeschooling

Your notion only works if you want to have a world filled with firemen, ballerinas, and astronauts. What kids want to be in fifth grade has zero relation to what they will eventually become. No fifth grader ever said, "I want to be a middle manager," but we need plenty of those.

And if we prep kids for their careers when they're in grade school, then new professions will never be invented. Fifth graders in the 1940's didn't dream of becoming COBOL programmers in the 1960's.

The reverse test

[adonoman]

First, I think you're giving Mrs. Wilder less credit than she deserves, given that she lived well into the 1950s, I don't think a highway interchange would have phased her much. That being said, I recently applied the reverse of the proposed "Laura Ingalls test" and brought my 5 years old to a replica 1880s town featuring a 1 room prairie school house. We had a very difficult time convincing him that it was a school. In his opinion, a school needs to have books, tables and not desks, whiteboards and not chalkboards, electric lights, and of course, a sand table, lego, toy cars, easals and painting supplies, and computers. He couldn't wrap his head around why you'd need inkwells or slates.

Change is not always good.

[tpstigers]

I am an archaeologist. As such, I am often struck by the phenomenon that is the humble shovel. Here is a tool that I use every day. It is also a tool that any legionnaire in ancient Rome would recognize and know how to use. Why has this technology not appreciably progressed in 2000 years? Is it because we're stuck in a rut? Or is it because 2000 years ago they just got it right?

We should not be quick to jump to the conclusion that lack of change equals lack of advancement.

Just add Broadband internet access ...

[CalcuttaWala]

The only piece of technology that adds value is an internet access device with a broadband connectivity to the internet. A school is meant to open your eyes to the all the wonderful things that are waiting to be learnt and this happens when you move from a single teacher ( with his limited knowledge ) to the library ( that stores the knowledge of many more people ) then on to the internet that dissolves physical boundaries. Everything else that a student needs will drop down automatically as and when it is needed.

When I was that age

[gagol]

We were not allowed simple calculators in the classrooms until the more advanced math classes of high schools. Primary school is not about mastering tools or preparing for a job, it is about learning to read and write WELL, and do math IN YOUR HEAD. It is about learning to enjoy improving yourself. About learning to live in a civilized manner. It has been proved that when reading from a computer screen, you retain 30% less information. Children already spend way too much time in front of computers/tv/videogames and not enough time enjoying the fresh air.