So I’ve been working in the education system for grades k-12 at different schools in my district. I realized something about technology in school and decided to share my thoughts and opinions and wish to hear yours as well. Keep in mind this is only for the district I work in which is more towards the ghetto side of things and this is also my personal opinion.

So the first thing I realized is the chromebooks. They are a terrible tool for education. While I do support the use of technology for education, I do believe it can very easily be abused. For first graders and younger, I realize that they will easily click on a tab or an icon somewhere else which will bring them out of the tab they should be in. Now depending on the district and the IT team, some districts block sites and restrict certain access but others such as the one I currently work in seems to not do that at all leaving k-12 with free range of the internet. I wish there was a different OS for education (wish it was a Linux os) or if chromeos had an education section with their chrmebooks. Even something such as the lockdown browser that some colleges use would be a lot better. It feels like a gab that is waiting to be filled and I hope it’s filled by an open source and privacy respecting solution.

The other thing I realize is how the softwares they use such as iready and other learning websites lack the spark they need. A lot of kids from kindergarten to 8 complain how they hate those programs and how boring they are. I’ve heard this could be due to the short attention span of this generation but I’m not so sure. I also noticed how some don’t even consider special kids and when teachers give special kids those programs, it fails to capture their attention. Please bear in mind that this does not apply to all students and all special students but it’s a pattern I have noticed.

Like I said I wish there was a solution that is open source and maybe a Linux version of Chromebook and chrome os but that’s just the sovereignty and privacy advocate side of me. What do you guys think? Are there solutions that exists in your district? Have your district figured out using technology for education or have you experienced similar things.