Behind on the Times

The twitter account that I have been following @RenLearnUS tweeted on November 10th as follows:

"An interesting look at what happens when schools simply don't have the budget for the technology students need."

Attached to the tweet for the link Struggle to teach students ’21st century skills’ when classroom technology isn’t up to speed.  As fast as software is changing and constantly being updated,  the computers often can not keep up with the constant change under a school budget.  Just as something new comes into the school, it is already outdated.  In today's classrooms, teachers are often encouraged to utilize technology in their lessons, but as things begin to run slow and aren't compatible, it often becomes more frustrating for the teacher and the students.  The constant change in technology and lack of being able to upgrade constantly also causes trouble in areas where they may not be "well off" and in that case, their peers at the school just one county over is getting a ore knowledgable education, leaving some students at a disadvantage and basically creating a technology gap.  The article names that it is one day "a dream" for there to be a technological device for each student in the classroom, or one to one.  In my personal opinion, though this could truly be a great thing for many teachers, I do not believe that technology should be implemented throughout an entirety of a lesson and find that it should be included as a part of a lesson.  With this being said, it is not necessary for there to be a device for every single student in the school. Now BYOD can be a great thing to implement throughout the schools because many students have relatively up-to-date devices.  But not all students, so you then have to ensure students without devices have access to another there at school, which if they aren't quite familiar with them, could cause them to be at a disadvantage.  At the end of the day, it all depends on the teacher in the front of the classroom that makes the decisions that they know themselves and their students will be comfortable with, and ensure the best possible education they can deliver.