Thursday, September 10, 2009

The times they are a changin'

My wife is also a High School teacher, and she mentioned how hard it is to book a computer lab for a class at her school. That got me thinking about how computers are becoming more and more necessary to education.

Currently, I would say that if a school of 1000 students has 300 computers for those students, some for students taking computer or computer technology courses, some for use by classes, that school is doing pretty well. What is going to happen when a computer becomes indispendable and all 1000 students need one? How are schools going to afford it?

Having a computer for every student is almost certainly not in the budget for any school board, but like I think the day is coming when every student will need a computer to get the best possible value out of his or her education. Maybe we, as a society, need to move away from a model of education where every High School student is in every class every day.

Many of these students have computers at home that are sitting idle while the student is at school. If the student was allowed to be at home while "attending school" through webcams, Second Life, or other technology, then he or she would have a computer without the school board having to pay for it.

Maybe the day is coming when students will be able to telecommute to school in the same way that some adults are telecommuting to work.

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