Indiana's impact on technology education

     I was curious as to how the Indiana State Government has been impacting educational technology and after a quick search I found an article that answered some of my questions while giving me many more to search for answers to. This article is a brief overview on how Indiana officials are taking smart risks with technology and innovative classrooms. Mr. Stokes even goes so far to state in his article that what the state government is doing is making Indiana into an "education technology incubator," which is actually kind of risky.

So instead of changing eggs into chicks..... we will change a failing education system to a successful one?

     In 2011 Indiana gave $4.3 million in grants to schools in the form of Classroom Innovation Funds, encouraging schools to purchase iPads, SMART tables, and other forms of innovative technology (Stokes). It's basically like the government was one of those dads who just gives his kid some money and says go buy something educational. This can be an amazing opportunity for growth or a slippery slope into disaster.

Is this what our future holds?

Even state officials working in the Indiana Department of Education realize that they are walking a tightrope. Stoke's article even mentioned that John Keller, the Indiana Department of Education’s assistant superintendent for technology felt like they were possibly turning students into guinea pigs (Stokes). 

      Here's my opinions on the whole idea. Yes, the state government should be offering grants to support technology in education, but they also need to make sure that the spending can be validated in some way. Let's go back to that analogy I mentioned earlier. If the child came home with a video game... let's say Grand Theft Auto, the Dad could yell and scream at his child for buying such a horrible game or ask the kid why. The child could possibly validate the educational qualities of a seemingly wasteful purchase by highlighting the games entrepreneurial nature, which could encourage the player to improve math and business skills. This could be valid, but if the father realizes that the child is just playing the game to create violence in a non-existent world, perhaps the purchase is not a valid educational choice.

   The problem with education is that every school, every teacher, every administration, and every student is different, but we try to use "Standards" to make everyone exactly the same.

 Standards are not helping anyone!!

Yes, it is nice for teachers to have an idea of what other teachers around the nation or state are teaching, but all in all standards are not the magical solution to the problem. In all reality standards should be used as more of a rough guideline to sketch out possible directions the class could take, but all of this is kind of getting off topic.

I think technology is a great way to improve the educational system, and yes I think governments should assist in funding technology. However, I am also of the opinion that since every child is unique and has a different learning style even technology is not the panacea. Many many ideas and solutions will have to be tested and properly utilized in order to fix our failing system and even then it is probably impossible to completely fix it all. 

Maybe we don't know what successful education really is...

Citation

Stokes, K. (2013, 10 13). Retrieved from http://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2011/10/13/is-there-

        any-educational-technology-indiana-wont-try-in-a-classroom/