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on 2007-03-29 by andrewdwelch

Young people typically use new technology far more often on their own time than in school

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Young people typically plug in to new technology far more often on their own time than in school.

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“When I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into this whole old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted.”

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many useful sites are blocked.

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he got permission to do a DVD slide show instead of a research paper.

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With their portable digital-music MP3 players, cellphones, and computers, today’s young people are constantly plugged in.

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relatively few schools have embraced it. Experts say insufficient training and lingering skepticism about the new tools contribute to that lag.

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“Most teachers are really not taking advantage of all the things they could be doing.”

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In most schools, technology means students using the Internet for research, or PowerPoint for presentations, Goodstein and other experts say. In some schools, students use classroom blogs, or online journals, to post and discuss classwork or share resources.

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experts say it is the rare classroom that turns blogs, MP3 players, podcasting, video games, or cellphones into learning tools.

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schools risk alienating students and miss prime opportunities to teach them how to analyze and understand their increasingly complex world

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“digital native” to capture the technological fluency of today’s young people

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“School represents the past. After-school is where they are training themselves for the future. The danger is that as school becomes less and less relevant, it becomes more and more of a prison.”

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Principal Christopher Lehmann says the idea is to build a vibrant, interactive learning community. “We’re creating educational social networking,”

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“I love the fact that my papers mean something to someone, and I try my hardest because so many people see them and I can get feedback from so many people,” Shorkey says. “This is the fifth high school I’ve gone to, and it’s my favorite because of how they do things.”

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Another benefit of blogging, Hunt and other teachers say, is creating a comfort zone for shy students, who aren’t likely to speak up in class, or those who need a few more moments of reflection before expressing their thoughts.

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“Many teachers are not comfortable with technology and need meaningful time devoted to teaching them how to use tools,”

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Teachers often find, as well, that they don’t get enough ongoing tech support to solve glitches when they happen

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Only Virginia requires that all students receive instruction on Internet safety

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Worries about student safety and privacy online also have fueled hesitation in moving ahead with instructional strategies such as blogs

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teachers, pressured to cover material and prepare students for tests, worry that they can’t afford to let students use technology to shape projects in unexpected ways

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“I can make a whole movie in my bedroom,” says the aspiring filmmaker. And he posts some of them online for all to see. But in school, he has little chance to use new technologies.

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To do research, his class of 29 troops upstairs to the media center to share 15 computers. And there, he says, many useful sites are blocked.

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The technology so integral to young people’s lives holds immense promise for academic learning, but relatively few schools have embraced it

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“School represents the past. After-school is where they are training themselves for the future. The danger is that as school becomes less and less relevant, it becomes more and more of a prison.”

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So if the newfangled tools are so promising, why aren’t they turning up in every classroom? Insufficient training is the barrier experts most often blame.

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Never in any of his classes, he says, have teachers solicited students’ ideas about how they could harness technology to learn in new ways.

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