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Hoover Podcast: Technology and Education, with John Chubb
I’ve recently been recording a series of interviews with members of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, the members of which just released a new book, What Lies Ahead for America’s Children and Their Schools, a collection of essays on the major issues that are going to confront education in the years to come.
In the first of these discussions, I talked with John Chubb, President of the National Association of Independent Schools, about the influence of technology on education. Will internet learning displace or augment a conventional classroom education? Will grade levels become a thing of the past? And is it possible that consumer-centered innovations could actually result in teachers earning more? Those are just some of the topics we discussed in the conversation below:
Published in General
Kids (of all ages) can be very well-served by the introduction of technology into their education … as long as its the right technology, and its used for the right purpose.
Since I got my (non-Internet-enabled) eReader, I’ve read more in the past three years than I probably read in the last 20 years, and the vast majority of it has been works of a classical (or semi-classical) nature because I hate spending money, so I download mostly public domain stuff from gutenberg.org or feedbooks.com.
Furthermore, teaching kids about computers in a dedicated computer class is really, really beneficial. Specifically, teaching them how computers actually work so they don’t think of them as magic boxes, and also so they understand the limits of what computers can do, and the responsibilities of the user to protect their own privacy and the privacy of others. Also, I believe every kid should get a basic introduction to coding these days. Learning BASIC on my Commodore 64 back in grade 6, and PASCAL in grade 10, really helps me to pick up a new scripting language these days on the (pretty rare) occasion when I need it.
By contrast, I don’t see how iPads and always-on Internet access help them at all. The iPad (and Android tablets) is an entertainment device, best suited for distracting one’s mind from the task at hand.