Sunday, August 17, 2008

Technology - A Trojan Horse?

As we ready the books and scores and pencils for back to school, here is a NY Times article to think about. Are schools finally realizing the inevitable? That we have to use technology to train the youth of today or they will not be able to compete in the global market. I certainly hope so! But, unfortunately in my upper middle class district on Long Island we still do not have this 1 to 1 ratio of computers to children, let alone enough computers for each of the teachers in the music department! This is incredibly frustrating for a teacher who wants to branch out into project-based learning with her students. Yes, it is true that I can sign out a computer lab to use for work with my students, but there are no keyboards, no music software save the free download of Finale notepad that it took months for me to get permission to have installed, not to mention the fact that it is incredibly difficult to get a reservation when multiple teachers are fighting for that lab at the same time. I only hope that this article does show us turning a corner in US schools. I hope that many schools will see the success of project-based learning and put more money in the budget for all programs to take advantage of this awesome technological revolution! 

3 comments:

Earl said...

I certainly agree with you. Technology can help students learn various matters about music and make it easier for them to understand it. The combination of Arts and Technology can indeed motivate students better.

- Music Teacher's Helper

Joseph Pisano said...

Susan,

Sorry about the link on mustech.net. It has not been pointing to your blog. I've fixed. Again, I really like your blog and what you are writing and hope you have many more posts!

J. Pisano -mustech.net

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