Don't Tell the DOE about Ethiopia!

How do illiterate Ethiopian children receiving tablets and the United State's failing system of standardized testing relate?
The correlation between the two ideas: standardized testing doesn't work; the U.S. is falling far behind countries like Finland where learning is innovative and engaging; and the study where children in a remote Ethiopian village hacked Android on Motorola tablets in five months without help; suggest the need for change in the way we teach.  We know that there is no evidence for the benefits of standardized testing on learning.  We are also learning more about the capabilities of the brain when given tools and allowed to be responsible for one's own learning (Ethiopia).  There is much that could be discussed here, for example: What if teachers made learning goals more like mysteries to be solved as in the case with Ethiopia?  If standardized testing doesn't work, but given teachers freedom does (Finland), what should that mean for the classroom?  Is it too late for the U.S. to change it's ways or is the Department of Education too sold out on standardizing?  All of these things could be deeply explored.  My main concern is how others, specifically those currently in power in education, might make a correlation here.
How can we take what we saw happening in Ethiopia and apply it to the way we teach in the U.S.?
Along the lines of current DOE thinking, those in charge might say the solution is to replace teachers with Motorola tablets, giving each student one.  The tablets would be programmed to teach the students that information they need to know for their standardized tests.  "School," would become a free range facility where student could mill around as they liked, totally engrossed in their tablets, then ushered into rooms to take tests every so often.  There would also have to be a few adults present to handle misbehavior.  This is scary.  So let's be selective with who we tell about the research in Ethiopia and avoid correlating the study to the current failure of teaching to tests in the presence of those who work for the United States DOE.

BYOT Affirmations and Criticisms

BYOT=Bring your own technology

Affirmation 1: The principle behind students bringing their own technology to help them be more engaged and work more efficiently in the classroom, is a great one.  It is encouraging for me to read that there are current educators who are embracing the possibilities of students commanding technology in the classroom and who are willing to push back the restrictions of typical school conventions.  The BYOT article rings true with its statement about how educators tend to ban that which they do not understand.  This is unfortunately true and the close-mindedness of this attitude is ironic considering how it is the purpose of education to expand the knowledge and imagination of students, not restrict life into the box of what is already understood and comfortable.  Students bringing their own technology would be a great way for students and teachers to find new avenues of exploration and imagination.

Affirmation 2: I loved how the article touched on how banning personal devices from school creates a situation where students cannot perform how they normally would, using their devices at home.  As an educator, I would rather my students have a school experience where they are able to do more and experience more than they would if they stayed at home.  I want school to be a place of discovery, not a place where students have to live within a list of restrictions on what they can and cannot do and have.  Technology has quickly become part of students' basic functioning and taking that away from them would become very confining and limiting.

Criticism 1: It is a good argument that students who do not have their own devices to bring to school will have greater access to the school's technology while their peers are busy with their personal gadgets.  This position does not take into account however, how it feels to be the unique student who does not have his/her own technology to bring/  This student will in part experience the thrill of getting to do something at school that is not available at home, but s/he may also feel singled out, judged, or like s/he is not contributing as much to the class.  A big benefit of BYOT is that students will be familiar and efficient with their personal devices, but students who cannot bring their own will be at a disadvantage in that way.

Criticism 2: I loved that the article pointed out how BYOT allows students to teach their teachres about the uses of different technological devices--that's a great thing.  Classroom learning could be of greater benefit to the students, however, if they had teachers who were better prepared to help them harness the potential of their technology in the classroom.  For teachers who are not as familiar with technology, jumping into a BYOT classroom will make them feel like they've been thrown to the wolves.  Part of this is the need for an attitude adjustment on the part of the teacher; s/he should learn to move past distrust of technology or distrust of students using it.  There is a sense however, that the teacher really is at an unhelpful disadvantage.  There needs to be greater teacher training concerning technology in general before BYOT can work to its maximum potential in the classroom.