Benefits of Internet for Student

Posted in Information, Internet by Lily On March 16, 2013. No comments

When you likely know, world-wide-web is these kinds of a

knife that has two distinct sides (beneficial and destructive outcomes). You may often see and
listen to news each offline and on the web that inform you there are many detrimental
outcomes of world-wide-web specifically for students who typically benefit from web to
engage in online games or search either adverse pics or videos. Despite acquiring destructive
consequences, truly internet also brings positive consequences for students, this sort of as:
Increase students commitment in studying. Learners quite possibly will really feel bored
should they only study from textbook day by day. Thats why net may be fantastic substitute
media to improve students drive in researching.
By using internet like an understanding media, learners can see related shots or animations
which might be similar to lesson. Based upon some reputable researches, students
determination in researching can maximize fast if lecturers or lecturers use photos or
animations in describing lesson. In addition to, students can comprehend lesson swiftly.
Get each up-to-date and out-of-date data fast. By using internet to assist teaching and
discovering process, college students do not should look for internet pages of books which
are related to lesson any more. They might accessibility search engines like Google like
Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, variety suitable key phrase, and then get appropriate information
and facts they need speedy.

10 Internet Safety Tips for Students

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Mrs Kathleen Morris

Last night I attended a presentation by former police officer and cyber safety expert, Susan
McLean. She addressed many issues around internet safety, cyber bullying, sexting,
problematic internet behaviour and digital reputation.

Attribution: non-commercial
www.flickr.com/photos/27340884@N07/2550793685
Internet safety is something I try to address frequently and authentically with my students. I
have found education around this issue to be so important.
When students develop internet behaviours without guidance, problems are sure to occur. My
hope is that teaching students some key messages from a young age will help them navigate
their way safely through the internet as they grow older.
I have found blogging to be an excellent way to teach students about being responsible digital
citizens and members of online communities. I have seen other tools such as Edmodo used to
promote positive internet behaviours too.
Here are some key messages around internet safety that I believe all
students should be aware of.

Most of these are tips I share with my students with some ideas from Susan McLean.
1. Always ask an adult if youre unsure of anything when you are online.
2. Dont sign up for sites that are 13+ if you are not old enough (Facebook,
YouTube, Instagram etc).
3. Remember YAPPY (the personal information you should not share online)
Your full name, address, phone number, passwords, your plans.
4. Dont add people as online friends unless you know them in real life or
have parent permission. Never arrange to meet an online friend without
talking to a parent.

5. Remember that you cannot believe everything you read on the internet
and you cant trust everything online friends tell you.
6. Choose sensible names for usernames, email addresses etc.
7. Talk to your parents about what youre doing online and let them know
when youre going on the internet.
8. Know what cyber bullying is and tell someone if you think its happening to
you. Cyber bullying is when someone picks on you, annoys, embarrasses,
or threatens you over and over again using technology, such as the
internet or a phone.
9. Protect your digital footprint: dont put anything online that you wouldnt
want all your friends, family, teachers and future employers to see.
10.Treat others online the way youd like to be treated.

You bring up a couple of critical concepts:

1. Teens today connect emotionally with technology tools. They will find ways to
post and communicate digitally. This includes social networking and video
sharing sites.
2. Students are routinely blocked from social networking websites in an effort
from educators to shield students from potentially harmful content or contact.
The challenge for the administration is that its easier to block a site or entire
genre like social networking or video sharing than to track and monitor students
online activity. In the ideal setting, students are supported by educators and
trusted adults as they ramp into digital environments, like social networking
sites. Our goal should be to help students develop into ethical, responsible and
resilient digital citizens. Blocking does not teach responsible use. CIPA calls for it.
CIPA (the law that requires schools protect youth from harmful content by using
filters) uses the term monitor as a strategy to protect youth.
I like to use the term checking rather than monitoring.
It is my hope that school administrators and IT departments will allow tools to
better check their students online activities rather than using blocking as the
primary strategy to protect youth at school. By knowing that their online
activities are monitored, students are more likely to feel accountable for their
digital interactions. This should be done at school. The web is never a private
place and students who recognize early that online activities can be tracked,
stored and shared from a variety of technologies are in a better position to make
wiser choices about what they post online and with whom they communicate.
In the book Lord of the Flies young people are left alone in a new environment
without oversight or support from adults. Kids who jump into social networking
without understanding some key concepts about digital responsibility, safety,
and security are left alone just like the boys in Lord of the Flies. Blocking is not
the most effective solution but students on and offline environments need
to include trusted adults guidance and oversight. I believe checking to be the
most efficient strategy for developing students into more responsible digital
citizens rather than blocking them entirely.

1. Many groups have lots of experience in facilitating student and teacher exchanges
over the Internet
If you are looking to help facilitate conversations and learning activities between students and
teachers using the Internet -- this sounds great! One thing to consider: Lots of other groups
have done, and do, this too. Some do this well (like iEARN, which despite the crazy
capitalization in its name has been a leading organization in this area for over two decades),
and some admittedly not so well, but there is a wealth of experience you can tap into. You
might wish to invest a little time and effort into learning about what works, and what doesn't,
from such groups, who are often very open in sharing information. You may even want to
partner with a few of them as you get started.
2. Why are you connecting?
This may sound like a(n overly) simple question, but I often find that many groups seeking to
support things like 'connecting students to each other over the Internet' wade into such waters
not only without a clear idea of what exactly they want to do, but also of why exactly they
want to do it. Connecting just for the sake of connecting, as might occur in a short 'pen pal'
sort of interaction, can be a valuable experience, but such connections might, by their very
nature, be too ephemeral (or even superficial) to have sustained, long-lasting value over time.
This is not to contend that such quick connections and interactions don't have any value, of
course -- absolutely not! Rather, it is just to point out that exchanges of that sort are only one
potential type of interaction possible to catalyze and support between students (or teachers)
online. If you hope to utilize such connections to help promote the development of some of
what are often referred to as '21st century competencies' (such as those identified as 'goal '4.7'
in the UN's proposed new 'sustainable development goals'), you might need to consider more
than a very short, time-bound exchange of information. Whether your virtual exchange is
meant to serve as a 'side dish' (complementing some other ongoing or planned educational
activity) or the 'main course' (where the exchange itself is the focus of what you are doing),
having clarity about your reasons for connecting will help provide useful direction as you
plan for whatever it is you end up doing.
Indeed:
3. Your reasons for connecting will influence the nature of the connection
Many groups actively look to utilize the Internet to connect teachers and students to each
other from different countries as part of an effort to 'promote great peace and global
understanding'. A question: If, by helping to catalyze and support a virtual exchange between
students and teachers in different parts of the world, your goal is to promote 'peace and
understanding', do you want to make the exchange about that ... or about something else in
order to develop and nurture the sorts of connections that could, as a by-product, lead to
greater 'peace and understanding' (whatever that may mean to you)? If you are explicit about
promoting 'global understanding', you may tend to attract certain types of folks and promote

certain types of interactions. There is nothing wrong with this, of course. But it might be
worth considering whether such goals might be met by focusing on something *else* (joint
scientific exchanges, for example, or collaboratively writing a report about a health or
environmental issue common to both sides), targeting teachers and students with other
interests, where the promotion of 'peace and understanding' across borders might be a
potential by-product of such exchanges or collaborations.

4. Scheduling is non-trivial!
Especially as you seek to establish and maintain connections across borders, complications
related to differing school calendars and curricula, if not anticipated and managed, can
present significant challenges. When a school in one country is in session, another may be on
holiday. What students in country X learn when they are 12 years old may be first introduced
in another country's curriculum for 15 year olds. Even if a topic is taught in the last year of
primary school in two countries, the sequencing may be quite different. Time zones are also
one (obvious) potential issue: It is hard to Skype with people in another hemisphere if they
are asleep. Even where curricula are roughly similar, school calendars are generally aligned
and time differences are manageable, holidays, exam periods and basic differences in
instruction periods each week (in one school a topic may be taught twice a week where in
another it is taught daily) can make coordinating schedules quite difficult in practice. In my
experience, nitty-gritty scheduling issues are often a *much* bigger challenge in practice
than they may first appear.
One way to get around such scheduling challenges is to ...
5. Make it all extra-curricular
Given all of the challenges with scheduling, and age cohorts, and alignment with curricula -and perhaps with student interest and access to technology as well -- it might be most prudent
to consider anchoring such exchanges within extra-curricular activities outside of normal
school hours. Doing this has obvious drawbacks, of course, but it might be the most practical
approach in many circumstances. Classroom teachers and students may (unfortunately) be
judged largely (or even in some places solely) on various high stakes exam results, and where
cross-border online connections are not seen to directly support preparation for such exams,
they may be hard to maintain, or even justify, within a formal classroom environment and
school structure. If you make participation something *extra*, and pursue it outside of
normal class hours (after school, during break or free periods, even, as possible/appropriate,
in the evening or on weekends when students are at their homes), the exchange might be
possible.
6. Connecting classrooms to classrooms versus one individual classroom to another
single classroom
Connecting to classrooms, students and teachers in other parts of the world can be exciting -and very difficult to do successfully. This is especially true when groups on both (or all) sides
do not know each other and have no shared history of working together -- especially when
they have never met in person. One important approach that can help support and sustain
connections at a distance is to simultaneously pursue more 'local' connections as well. For
example: A few teachers and classrooms in a school or local community can join together in
reaching out to counterparts in some other place. This provides teachers on each end with a
local peer network upon which they can rely for guidance and support. If for some reason a

connection with a distant group falls through, a project can still proceed 'locally'.
Related to this ...
7. Global vs. national (or local) connections (and how they might be related)
Connecting students and teachers in different schools together in some way using the internet
can be a very rewarding experience. It can also be quite difficult to make happen, even
between schools within the same education system, studying the same thing, and where
students/teachers of similar backgrounds and experiences are linked with each other. One of
the reasons to attempt connections, of course, is precisely to help bridge (real and/or
perceived) differences of various sorts (geographic, linguistic, national, socio-economic,
ethnic, gender, religious, etc.). That said, such differences can complicate such connections in
all sorts of (understandable) ways. With this in mind, it might be useful to consider
connecting locally to support cross-border connections.
In my experience with the World Links program, we often found that (for example), as
interested as kids in Accra might be in connecting with students in Chicago, they were often
actually *more* interested in connecting over the Internet with their counterparts in schools
in Cape Coast or Kumasi with whom they might otherwise have little opportunity to interact.
(For those who don't recognize the names of some of these cities: Three of them are in
Ghana.) Connecting students and teachers across Ghana together, and then collectively
pursuing online exchanges with similar groups in the United States, was in some ways easier
to pull off than just trying to connect two schools across international borders. And: The
national connections persisted long after the international ones weakened.
8. Language will be a challenge
Part of what makes cross-border connections between students and/or teachers novel, fun and
adventurous is the language barrier. (There can sometimes be language barriers even where
both groups nominally speak the same language. 'Two countries divided by the same
language' is how George Bernard Shaw once rather wittily characterized the United States
and England. The same might be said for South Africa and Singapore, or even, as a joking coworker from Milan once told me, for different parts of the same country, including her native
Italy!) Online language translation tools have come a long way in recent years, and can be
invaluable aids in bridging language barriers. As anyone who has used them knows, however,
the results generated through the use of such tools can be far from perfect in many cases.
Where real-time communication is required (in chat rooms, for example, or using
videoconferencing), time delays due to translation need to be factored in.
One common approach utilized in many online or virtual exchanges is for most
communication to be routed through teachers, who may be more likely to share a common
language than might all of the students in both classrooms who might be connected. (There
are other reasons to consider routing communication through teachers; more on that later.)
One piece of advice: If you are looking to connect to a classroom in another country so that
students in your classroom can practice using their foreign language with native speakers,
you might want to consider what your 'partners' may get out of such exchanges. As
interesting as it might be for your third year French-as-a-foreign-language students to practice
their rudimentary linguistic abilities with native speakers in Lyon or Dakar, the native French
speakers on the other end may quickly loose interest in such communication. This is not to

say that exchanges for the purpose of practicing foreign languages are inappropriate, or likely
to fail -- not at all (or at least, not necessarily). It is just to consider reciprocity, and what
incentives there might be for groups on both sides of exchanges to sustain them successfully.
9. Consider supporting virtual connections through face-to-face interactions
Many schools in Europe have enjoyed productive, and sometimes quite long-term, online
connections with each other across national borders. The work of the European Schoolnet,
and notable efforts like the eTwinning initiative of the Erasmus program, have been pivotal in
this regard in many instances. So too have been a number of other programs which have
supported (at admittedly quite high costs in many cases) bringing students and teachers
together in personal to visit each others schools. As comfortable as people are getting with
making and sustaining online connections, such connections are often made much stronger
where groups have first met face-to-face. This is not financially feasible, of course, but it can
sometimes be facilitated if you ...
10. Build off existing relationships and interests, initiatives and events
When connecting globally, one approach to consider is to include a diasporan community on
one side. Examples of this could include connecting a school in Sydney with large numbers
of first generation immigrants from China with a school in Shanghai, for example, or a
community in Sao Paulo with many students whose families originally hailed from Japan
with a school outside Tokyo. There may be existing linkages between such groups facilitated
by groups outside the education system that can help with this. Another is to link with
existing Sister Cities relationships, which sometimes have existing mechanisms in place to
help facilitate connections, but which are in need of people to connect, and reasons to connect
them. Yet another approach can be to link in some way with a large international large event
(a sporting event like the Olympics or the World Cup, for example) which brings together or
interests people from different countries at the same time. Entering various online
competitions can be a way for a school to meet potential collaborators and partners, and
provide a rational for such a collaboration. Sometimes schools can leverage the fact that an
international business has operations in both of their local communities for support in making
and sustaining their connections and virtual exchanges.
--No doubt many others have additional advice or suggestions (and/or may disagree with some
of the things I have said here). If so, adding a comment below is most welcome! I have a few
more things to share as well. To that end, a follow-up post next week (I figured that this one
had already gone on too long) will offer ten additional comments, questions and perspectives
on connecting students and teachers around the world to each other to facilitate 'virtual
exchanges'.

The pros and cons of using the Internet to

complete schoolwork

JENNY SPEARS

Jul 28, 2013

The classroom atmosphere familiar to todays children is likely very different from the
atmosphere their parents were accustomed to when they were students. Many of these
changes can be traced to technology, which has gradually had an increasing presence in the
classroom over the last several decades.
But technology has not only changed the classroom experience for kids, but thanks in large
part to the Internet, technology also has changed the way kids approach their schoolwork at
home. Though a potentially valuable learning tool, the Internet also poses some problems for
todays students. The following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on
the Internet to complete schoolwork.
The pros

The accessibility of the Internet can be a significant benefit to students. Students have a
wealth of resources available to them online, and those resources can make it easier for kids
to understand key concepts on nearly every subject. Whereas students might once have been
forced to trek to the library to research a given subject, now they can do so from the comforts
of home. And unlike the library, the Internet never closes, so information is at students
disposal regardless of when they sit down to do their schoolwork.
Another advantage to using the Internet to complete schoolwork is that the Internet can be an
extension of the classroom beyond school walls. Educational Web sites abound on the
Internet, and many of these sites are written and monitored by professional educators. These
sites can be valuable resources for students who may find themselves struggling with certain
lessons. Many of their questions or concerns may already be addressed, and certain topics
may be more easily explained on a Web site written by a professional educator or scholar in a
given field. Rather than waiting to address an issue in class, students can visit such Web sites
to answers to their questions immediately.
The Internet also can provide students with a forum to discuss their studies which does not
always exist in the classroom. That forum may engage students and make them better
students. A passionate online discussion about a reading assignment may encourage kids to
approach such assignments more fervently. Though such discussions may exist in a
traditional classroom atmosphere, many students might be hesitant to express themselves in
front of their classmates, feeling the anonymity of the Internet is a more inviting and less
stressful forum than a classroom of their peers.
The cons
As beneficial as the Internet can be to students, its not always what its cracked up to be.
Much of the concern about using the Internet to complete schoolwork is the reliability of the
information on the Internet. Many sites offer reliable and well-researched information, but
many do not. Students, especially younger students, may not be capable of discerning fact
from fiction and will simply take the written word on the Internet as truth. That may land
students in hot water or make it more difficult for them to understand their subjects.
Another significant disadvantage to using the Internet to complete schoolwork is that students
may be tempted to cheat. Because the Internet is so vast, students might be tempted to cut and
paste answers to homework problems from the Internet or copy information from Web sites
and claim it as their own, feeling as if there is no way their teachers will ever find out. Some
students may not even understand that such cutting, pasting or copying is wrong. But in
addition to being wrong, such behavior, whether students are caught or not, also makes it
harder for students to learn the material, which will make it more difficult for them to grasp
key concepts going forward.
The Internet can also be a significant distraction to students. Social networking sites can
quickly distract kids from their schoolwork, costing them valuable time they should be
devoting to their studies.
For more than a decade, the Internet has proven a valuable resource for students across the
globe. But students must recognize there are advantages and disadvantages to relying too
heavily on the Internet when pursuing their studies.

Important Internet Facts for Students

Internet is quite familiar term for students. Every student in college campus talks about
importance of internet. But many of them do not know the depth of Internet areas such as
how it is useful, when to use, and so on. We all know that Internet facility is an additional
benefit for common man to meet his individual, academic or professional need. It is highly
important to be acquainted with that how to use Internet to solve the purpose. It is not only
the medium for entertainment or adhering to hi tech environment. It is a technological
advancement for getting better education, research and good finance management.
Today Internet is becoming basic requirement of students, academicians, business
professionals and housewives. It provides extensive information for products, courses or
whatever is needed. The Internet is a fascinating world to visit. Internet sites put forward
entertainment, knowledge, advice, great shopping, and a whole social world. Students may
work out several problems visiting Internet website. They can manage finance. Students can
prepare college assignments by collecting information from websites. Housewives may get
knowledge of wide variety of products for their personal or family use. It is viewed as an easy
way to know about whole world.
With great advantages, Internet users must know how to extract the needed information. Just
visiting a site will not solve purpose. Students must search for authentic information by
visiting reputed sites and confirm the literature with standard books otherwise there may be
danger of learning wrong concepts. Browsing on the Internet is not much different to any
destination; we need to know where we are and decide how we want to get there. It is
important first to learn each step of using Internet such as how to sign in, how to sign out.
While checking Email, do not visit any unknown sites. Security issues are matter of concern
while we are visiting Internet. We must protect our computer from scoundrels who try to
harm our system. It can be protected by loading latest anti virus software. Many students do
not bother to give their personal details, educational projects or any reliable information

which is private. They may be victim of fraud because hackers can hack all information and
exploit. In seconds, criminals can spoil the life. When using Internet, students must cautious
about opening an unknown site. It may be an invitation to viruses and these viruses can
corrupt the important data. Finally, users may loose some data when the computer is
formatted as final solution.
Today children are more conscious of learning about Internet. Parents of internet user
children feel proud that their kids are using hi tech gadget at an early stage. Some Internet
sites are objectionable for students who are in elementary stage because they do not know the
concepts as they are not mature enough. It is necessary to educate juniors or children by
telling them to use some reputed sites which will enhance their educational level, improve
their vocabulary and General knowledge. Children are told about the potential damage of the
Internet and establish rules for secure computing. Guardians can find third party software to
maintain control over our children's Internet surfing.
Another imperative aspect is to know that we have appropriate software and hardware to
work with multimedia files. As it is an influential way of entertainment, correct software can
turn the Internet for music, sports, radio stations, and video. On Internet, students can create
their own audio media using windows Media player. Students can setup their e-mail software
to retrieve e-mail from different account. On Internet, Mailing lists are an excellent technique
to discover information on subjects in which we have an interest. We can find newsgroups for
approximately any subject we can think of. Outlook express makes the best newsreader for
newsgroups. Everyone can take benefit of website forums to learn about detailed topics.
Students can find chat rooms on the Internet for important communication with other users.
The greatest advantage of Internet is that it is very simple way to find appropriate job without
spending much time and money. Today several online jobs are available for students who
have just completed their professional courses such as in monester.com or naukri.com. They
can apply online and get invitation of telephonic interview when their resume is accepted.
Even they can join many higher level courses and keep on applying via Internet. It will save
their time and side by side, they can develop their professional competency by joining
training or other educational program. Internet is a great facility for those who cannot study
or work outside due to some family restriction as in case of girl students, physically disabled
or married women. They can join distance education course online and prepare for
examinations by collecting literature from Internet. Internet provides latest information to
develop personality. It does not matter whether a person is at home, at work or any where.
Some times students stop studying because they are not guided to where to go for further
education or how to choose career. Through searching information on Internet, students come
to know their hidden talents and obtain better option for study or career. It can be conclude
that Internet is not a domination of high-tech expert. Even an ordinary student can develop
search capability and decide his career through wisely using Internet. It will not only
transform his life but develop him a better human.

Beyond the Ban: Revisiting In-School Internet Access

March 13, 2014

246SHARES

Photo credit: Thinkstock

Editor's note: This post draws from World's Simplest Online Safety Policy, coauthored with
Lisa Nielsen in April 2011 and appearing on Tom Whitby's blog.
Where are we today with banning the Internet in schools? It was all the rage about three years
ago. It would seem that technology has taken us farther away from the dark ages of the scary
Internet. Mobile devices have underscored the fact that people have access to the Internet
almost anywhere and at any time. Social media has gained a much larger acceptance with the
public. Learning through social media has achieved a legitimate place among educators. Even
the airlines have revisited their policies on in-flight Internet access. It is becoming more and
more apparent to educators and parents that kids can gain access to the Internet without the
help and guidance from schools.
Misguided Restrictions

The very laws -- FERPA, COPPA and CIPA -- that schools often hid behind in order to justify
banning were originally designed to protect kids from unscrupulous profiteering companies
that attempted to acquire personal information from minors. It was never the intention of
these laws to require schools to ban teachers and students from accessing the Internet for the
purpose of learning. How districts felt the necessity to ban adult educators, as well as kids,
always baffled me. Nevertheless, these were the laws many administrators cited as the reason
for doing so. I imagine that there are still some misguided people continuing to invoke these
laws, while feeding into and off the fears of parents, fueled by tech companies selling security
software. Yes, access to porn is always the big consideration, as it has been for as long as I
can remember, and I go back many decades to before the Internet. I question whether a
school-wide ban of the Internet is an effective and efficient counter measure when
consideration is given to what else has been shut out by such a ban.

Common sense should be guiding force of Internet security for schools. Certainly the early
grades of elementary school need less access and more monitoring, but the best thing
educators can provide is the proper attitude and a huge emphasis on digital citizenship. The
very best example that will benefit kids is the proper modeling from adults, teachers and
parents. The more kids know early on about their personal responsibility, as well as the
consequences of poor judgment on the Internet, the better prepared they will be when they
become less monitored and less controlled.
A common sense policy for kids would reduce the restrictions as the kids got older. Certainly,
teaching kids early insures at least a preparation for the realities of the Internet whenever the
time comes, inside or outside of school, that each child is personally exposed in an unfettered
way to the Internet. One thing we can be sure of is that day will come, and when it does,
knowledge will be that kid's best defense.
Training and Guidance

We prepare kids to drive with driver training courses. We require a minimum number of
hours before they get behind the wheel on their own. They do, however, get behind the wheel
on their own. This most often takes place before they leave high school. We need a similar
approach to driving on the Internet. The world in which our kids will live already requires
them to be Internet savvy in order to exist in a tech-driven culture, let alone to effectively
compete in that world.
We can say that if a teacher is effectively engaging kids in meaningful learning, then there
should be no problems with discipline or kids freely accessing their devices. In reality,
however, that doesn't always hold true for even for the best of teachers. The fact is that older
students may need guidelines for when and where to use mobile devices. We do as adults, so
why would kids be any different? We are often asked in certain establishments or venues to
turn off our devices, and we comply. The best school policies for acceptable use should spell
that out for kids as well.
My favorite policy is for red, yellow and green zones. The green zone is free use of devices.
This would account for cafeteria, library and common areas. The red zones, where devices
cannot be used, would be the auditorium, gymnasium or a pool area. The yellow zones would
be places where devices could be used with permission -- classrooms and labs.
Teachers have the right to maintain classroom guidelines, as classroom discipline has always
been a primary function for teachers. Today, however, that requires many more decisions for
many more complexities, far more than teachers had to face in previous years. That can be
scary, but not insurmountable. We need to teach our educators new methods to deal with new
technologies that will continue to develop. Banning the use of technologies is a shortsighted
fix that does not enhance learning. With a newfound focus on expanding broadband in all
schools, these are policy considerations we need to address now, and not after the changes
have been made.

Why WiFi is needed in schools

Anti Wi-Fi advocates suggest that wired connections are a suitable alternative for internet
access. The reality is that devices with network ports are becoming increasingly hard to find
on contemporary laptops. But it is not just computers. Entire new lines of devices, such as
tablets, e-readers and smartphones, have no physical network connections. Restricting Wi-Fi
means an entire generation of technology is not useable in classrooms technology that is
often easier for younger students to use than a traditional computer.

However, Wi-Fi is not just about devices in a classroom for the sake of having shiny new
technology for technology sake. There are teaching and learning implications when
choosing wired vs. wireless access in a learning environment. A wireless school is
fundamentally a different learning environment than a wired school.

Wired only computers restrict access to the internet to specific

physical locations. In many schools, the only place where students have
access to the internet and the learning resources available there is in a
computer lab.

Wi-fi enables new educational practices to emerge because access to the

internet becomes ubiquitous a given. When access to unlimited
resources becomes available anytime, anywhere virtually instantaneously,
educators begin to use those resources differently.

Wi-Fi enables instantaneous communication between students and

students, students and teachers, and students and their family members
from anywhere in the school.

W-iFi allows for initiatives such as 1:1 computing (where every student in a
school is given their own device when they arrive at the school) and BYOD
(Bring Your Own Device) programs, such as the ones that have been
developed in Alberta.

Increasingly, both the internet and mobile devices are being used by
teachers inside the classroom, with studies showing that up to 73% of
teachers are using mobile devices for teaching and learning purposes. No
Wi-Fi means that there is no internet access on these devices.

Wired networks were great 20 years ago, but are as adequate for contemporary teaching and
learning as slate and chalk.
Below are a number of contemporary pedagogical initiatives & research studies that support
the need for Wi-Fi in schools.
iPads for Learning Department of Education & Early Childhood
Development, Victoria, Australia

iPads for Learning was a major Australian research trial examining the impact iPads have on
students learning at home and at school, as well as how iPads can benefit and transform
teaching practice. Over 700 iPads were distributed to students at nine selected schools and the
Royal Childrens Hospital Education Institute. Students used their iPads with wireless
internet access at school, and while at home were able to use their iPads with or without
internet access.
The evaluation of the trial showed that these tablets:

increased independent and self-initiated learning among students

increased student motivation and active engagement in learning

improved teachers capacity to plan for and meet individual student needs

improved student learning outcomes

extended students learning beyond the classroom

improved parental engagement in learning and strengthen home-school

links.

Specifically with regards to Wi-Fi, the study showed that:

High speed access to online information enables more self-directed

learning and rapid access to a fast-growing market of relevant and
regularly updated educational apps.

Portability enhances collaboration between students and communication

between students and teachers, increases parental engagement in
learning and strengthens home-school connections.

Students used the iPad to take greater control of their learning, using a
single device to search for information on the internet, practise specific
skills with selected apps, create keynotes and multimedia presentations,
and present and share their learning with their peers, teachers and family.

Essa Academy: Bookless school where everyone has iPad

The Essa Academy is located in Bolton, UK. This is a very good example of the type of
classroom that is possible with ready access to Wii. Notice how the teacher at :40 in is able to
instantaneously monitor student progress on an assignment and intervene to assist students
she sees having a problem. This type of instant feedback mechanism requires wireless
technologies in the classroom.
Additionally, the school was able to reduce their annual printing costs from 80,000 per year
to just 15,000 a year. That type of saving would be enough to pay for 2 additional
teachers in a Canadian school.
Report from the BBC.
Call for WiFi Revolution in Schools

While anti WiFi advocates promote removing WiFi from our schools, parents in Scotland are
urging policy makers to make WiFi ubiquitous in Scottish schools.
Iain Ellis, chairman of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said: We are aware there is
wi-fi provision in a number of schools but that pupils are not yet being given access to this
absolutely essential learning tool.
While we fully understand pupil safety is paramount, we have to get to grips with using
wi-fi technology in order to help young people to use the internet constructively for
educational purposes.

Increasingly, it seems that almost the only place pupils cant access the internet is in schools,
when schools are the very place where young people can be taught the skills to navigate the
internet safely and responsibly.
UK teenagers without the internet are educationally disadvantaged

This research study from the University of Oxford in the UK points out that many kids do not
have internet access in their homes and, as a result, face additional academic challenges.
While this paper focuses on what children lose academically and socially when they do not
have internet access in the home, there are implications for schools as well. If children do not
have internet access in their homes (possibly due to economic conditions in the home) then
the only place where they might be able to access the internet is at school. Shut them out at
school as well and you set up conditions that educationally disadvantage them even further.
We need to make access to the internet easier, not more difficult.
Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III: Teachers Perspectives

This qualitative research study (pdf) done by the non-profit Canadian charity MediaSmarts
sampled a group of exemplary teachers (as identified by their peers) about their perceptions
around digital and media literacy issues. The findings point to the need for educators to be
more proactive in teaching digital and media literacy as this group of teachers identified their
students as not so savvy surfer who loved playing with mobile devices, but lack the skills
they need to use these tools effectively for learning.
We need our teachers to be more proactive about teaching digital literacy skills, which
requires more, not less, access to technology in schools. Additionally, the report states that:
School filters and policies that ban or restrict networked devices in the classroom make it
difficult or impossible for teachers to use networked tools to enhance learning. They also
imply that schools do not trust their teachers to exercise good judgement, which is out of step
with the fact that teachers are frequently required to teach students how to deal with offline
content and conflict. Learning how to exercise good judgement and act as good citizens is
central to the development of digital literacy skills. Ironically, however, restrictive policies
designed to protect students from online content take away the very opportunities they need
to acquire these skills.
In other words, our teachers are asking for less, not more, restrictive policies around
internet access to teach students core citizenship skills. A ban on wifi is an extremely
restrictive internet policy.
The teachers featured in the report also identified 4 key pedagogical features of networked
technologies that enhance student learning.
1. Access to a wealth of learning resources

2. Communicating with others outside their classroom. The ability to connect

with the world outside the school in real time is the single most powerful
benefit of technology enhanced learning.
3. New opportunities for Collaborative Learning.
4. Working with Individualized Learning Styles.

This report was also featured in a Canoe technology article Blocking tech in classrooms
impedes learning: Teachers, which states that when technology is used in school, it often
focuses too much on teaching kids how to use a device, which they already know.
Teachers said kids know how to Google, but they cant distinguish good information from the
fake stuff. They can use Facebook, but they dont know how to protect their personal
information. They can watch YouTube, but they dont use it to learn new things.
You cant march the kids down the hall to a computer lab once a week for computer
class and expect them to become experts in how to sift legitimate from non-legitimate
information on the web, or how to protect their personal information, or how to use the
web as a learning tool.
How Teachers Are Using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms

A study published in Feb, 2013 by the Pew Institute in the US on how technology is being
used in the classroom shows that devices that require WiFi or 3G connectivity are already
being heavily used in the classroom:

Mobile technology has become central to the learning process, with 73%
of AP and NWP teachers saying that they and/or their students use their
cell phones in the classroom or to complete assignments

More than four in ten teachers report the use of e-readers (45%) and
tablet computers (43%) in their classrooms or to complete assignments

iPads for Learning

iPads for Learning is a blog post from a Grade 4 teacher in Calgary on how she uses mobile
technologies in her class. There are a number of examples on this website of projects created
by students using mobile devices.
I cannot imagine a more useful tool (tablets) for representing, consolidating, expanding or
creating understanding on the fly. I have no doubt that the rapidity with which app and
software developers react to user feedback and update accordingly makes it one of the few
technological tools out there that can effectively react to the ever-changing needs of youth in
education and the evolving 21st century classroom.
As you read her blog post, note how many different applications were downloaded and used
by the students, as well as how often cloud based applications such as Google Docs are used.

Quick and easy access to apps and web based services are required to enable students to
produce work like this:
QR Code Crime Scene

In this lesson, English teacher Jarod Borrman (who teaches at a 1:1 school where every
student has a tablet) has his students take part in a CSI crime scene investigation as a way to
connect more deeply with 2 key chapters in the novel Huck Finn. From Jarods blog post:
My goal was to have students take a more constructive approach to a piece of text while
gathering some kind of formative assessment. I wanted the iPad to merely be a tool to aide in
constructing knowledge, not the device to deliver the knowledge.
Here is a video of the classroom activity. Note how the students are moving around the
classroom, not stuck at a desk. They are actively learning and participating in an engaging
learning activity. Wifi is necessary to enable this type of classroom mobility, and to connect
the QR code clue with the snippet of text from the novel.
Here is another post about using QR codes in the classroom.
Mobile Learning we cannot continue to live in Pre-Digital Age

This article from UNESCO on mobile learning notes that we are not doing enough to utilize
the potential of mobile devices.
Despite the considerable potential however, mobile technology was still not being adequately
leveraged for education purposes, Janis Karklins, UNESCOs Assistant Director-General for
Communication and Information told forum attendees. We cannot continue to pretend that
we live in the pre-digital era, and to do so risks plunging schools into irrelevance. We live in
a world where many, if not most young people carry a powerful, easy mobile computer in
their pockets, he said. The question is not whether schools and school systems will engage
with these mobile technologies but when they will and how they will.
Kindergarteners Gaining Independence, Pride & Increased Comfort
Level with the iPad

Post from teacher Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano showing a learning activity where kindergarten
children are using tablets to take pictures of nouns in their classroom and emailing them back
to their teacher. When you look at the photos of this activity, notice how the children are up
and moving in the classroom with the technology they need going with them.

Photo credit: Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano used under Creative Commons license
A True Digital Classroom: South Kent School, Connecticut tablet
program

Video from South Kent, Connecticut high school on how adoption of tablets has changed
teaching and learning in their school. Note how the Head of the School talks about how the
digital platforms and the internet has flipped their entire philosophy of education and how
they approach teaching and learning.
It has made learning really explosive
Learning in the Modern Classroom

Another blog post from teacher Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano outlining a lesson in a Grade 4/5
classroom that began with students Skyping live one on one with a poet who allowed his
work to be reinterpreted and remixed by the students. As you read through this post, note the
number of places where students are connecting to the internet and using mobile devices such
a tablets, which have no physical connection to the internet only wifi or 3G connections.

'Banning Is Not the Answer' to Mobile and Social Tools in Schools

By David Nagel

04/11/12

Before choosing to restrict the use of social and mobile tools in schools, policymakers and
education leaders have to consider the negative impact such restrictions will have on learning.
That's the premise of a new policy report released jointly this week by more than a dozen
prominent education associations and advocacy groups.
The report, "Making Progress: Rethinking State and School District Policies Concerning
Mobile Technologies and Social Media," was released by more than a dozen major education
and ed tech groups, including the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the
FrameWorks Institute, which produced the report, along with the American Association of
School Administrators (AASA), the National Association of State Boards of Education
(NASBE), the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), the National
Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the National Education Association
(NEA), the Student Press Law Center, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the National
Writing Project, the National Council of Teachers of English, Common Sense Media, and the
Joan Ganz Cooney Center. It was funded through an award from the MacArthur-UCHRI
Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California, Irvine.
The goal of the report, its authors argued, was not to prescribe specific policies but to
illuminate issues that need to be considered--both positive and negative--in order to help
bring policy in line with the needs of education and realities of technological world in which
students live.
"In today's world, most students are attached to mobile devices of some kind whether in or
out of school. When policy and practice are aligned, the amazing possibilities presented by
this fact surely outweigh the challenges. Creating that alignment is our first step," said

NASBE Deputy Executive Director Bradley J. Hull in a separate statement released to

coincide with the report.
Social and Mobile Technologies: Current Realities
The report cited five "critical observations" related to the use of social and mobile tools in
schools, both supporting their use and acknowledging the need to address issues related to
their use. These included:
1. Social media and mobile devices are already in widespread use by students, and schools
are beginning to adapt their own policies to take advantage of students' current interest in
technology.
2. Mobile technologies and social media offer "tremendous" educational benefits, including
bridging formal and informal learning, providing access to educational resources students
otherwise wouldn't be able to use, and offering the ability to learn lifelong technology skills,
among others.
3. Some federal, state, and local policies do not match up with current realities and need
clarification or updating in light of current social trends and technological advancements.
4. Advocates of social and mobile technology need to address negative behaviors that are
sometimes associated with these technologies, including the use of technology tools in
bullying, along with self-destructive behavior and poor decision-making on the part of minors
whose actions can have lifelong consequences. The report's authors pointed out that schools
provide a unique opportunity for students to use their favorite tools in a supervised, mentored
environment.
5. Equity issues need to be addressed. BYOD programs, for example, some students will not
have the financial resources to supply their own equipment. Similarly, Internet access can be
an issue. "Failure to address this will create a critical fault line in the differential learning
opportunities available to students and, potentially, leave some groups of students ill prepared
to join our countrys 21st-century workforce," the report argued.
"Mobile technologies and social media, if leveraged appropriately, have the potential to
maximize student learning and engagement, and transform the concept of the classroom from
four walls to an interactive space where student-centered learning takes place," said
Frameworks Institute President Susan Bales, also in a prepared statement. "While there are a
variety of challenges, there are enormous opportunities, and if we--educators, technology
leaders and school decision makers--find ways to harness the power of these tools, the
benefits to our young people and our education system are countless. There are also
legitimate concerns that must be addressed, but they must be weighed against the potential
benefits."

Considerations for Policymakers

The report also made four suggestions for policymakers and stakeholders to consider when
looking at practices surrounding the use of technology in schools.
1. The first: "Banning is not the answer." Rather, a more balanced approach to access is called
for.
"The first generation of policymaking around communication technology in schools has been
built on a foundation of fear, and it's time to push 'reboot' and institute 'Policymaking 2.0'
built on facts and research instead. Education is something we do 'with' students and not
something we do 'to' students," said Frank D. LoMonte, executive director of the Student
Press Law Center, also in a prepared statement.
2. Second, the function of acceptable use policies needs to be revisited. AUPs, the report's
authors argued, should focus on "policy goals that go beyond the narrow set of Web site
access issues that were the primary focus of many earlier AUPs."
"The 'Making Progress' document supports a vision of schools that amplifies the use of
mobile and connective technologies from restrictive or 'acceptable' to 'responsible,'" said Bob
Farrace, NASSP senior director for communications and development.
"The rapid pace of technological developments and changing attitudes about appropriate
ways to communicate online, personal privacy, and freedom of speech present school leaders
and policy-makers with an evolving set of challenges from the classroom to the boardroom.
[The 'Making Progress' report] encourages thoughtful conversations before a crisis occurs so
the promise and potential of these new tools will not be lost in the rush to try and right some
unfortunate wrong," said NSBA Director of Education Technology Ann Lee Flynn.
3. Schools should use the adoption of social and mobile tools as an opportunity to reach
students on issues of digital citizenship, digital literacy, and responsible use of online tools in
a supervised environment.
"At Common Sense Media, we recognize how social media is changing and enriching the
way kids learn and discover the world around them--both in and out of the classroom," said
Linda Burch, chief education and strategy officer at Common Sense Media. "We also know
how important it is for districts to develop comprehensive policies to ensure that students can
harness technology to its full potential, which includes arming students with the right skills
and knowledge to use social media safely and responsibly."
"Many young people are already active digital consumers, but school is often the place where
they learn to be critical, reflective, and powerful digital citizens. But to do that, students and
teachers need to be able to read, write, search, and collaborate with broad access to wide
range of Web 2.0 tools," said National Writing Project National Programs and Site
Development Director Elyse Eidman-Aadahl.

'Banning Is Not the Answer' to Mobile and Social Tools in Schools

04/11/12

"The Partnership for 21st Century Skills supports CoSN's work to help schools and school
districts responsibly and effectively integrate mobile technologies and social media into the
learning environment. As reinforced by the report, when used appropriately, these
technologies can help students facilitate the 4Cs--communication, collaboration, critical
thinking skills and creativity, key 21st Century Skills all students need to succeed in college,
life, and career. It is important to help students understand the power and potential peril of
these new technologies as part of their overall information, media, and technology skills
attainment," said Lillian Kellogg, P21 chair and vice president of Education Networks of
America.
4. And finally, professional development is crucial to the successful adoption of any
technology and should be emphasized to support mobile and social initiatives, focusing in
particular on legal, ethical, and practical issues.
"Technology in the classroom can enhance what and how a student learns and helps teachers
cater to the unique needs, skills, interests, and learning styles of their students," said NEA
President Dennis Van Roekel, also in a prepared statement. "But educators must be provided
with professional development in digital technology in order to learn how best to engage
students in and out of the classroom using these tools. This is also an opportunity for parents
and school personnel to work together to teach all students responsibility and how to make
good decisions regarding the appropriate use of mobile devices."
In addition to observations and policy suggestions, the report provides snapshot profiles of
schools that are making a positive impact on students through the use of technology, along
with a resource directory highlighting the successful use of social media and mobile devices
in schools, examples of acceptable use policies, and other resources for schools looking to
explore the use of mobile and social tools as a part of education.

There Are No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education

Kentaro Toyama
There are no technology shortcuts to good education. For primary and secondary schools that
are underperforming or limited in resources, efforts to improve education should focus almost
exclusively on better teachers and stronger administrations. Information technology, if used at
all, should be targeted for certain, specific uses or limited to well-funded schools whose
fundamentals are not in question.
(Caveat: Because this article was written for an audience most interested in governmentfunded primary and secondary education in developing countries, words like wealthy,

average, and typical should be read with that context in mind. But, the conclusions are
relevant for a broad class of primary and secondary schools in developed countries, as well.)
To back these assertions, Ill draw on four different lines of evidence.
1. The history of electronic technologies in schools is fraught with failures.
2. Computers are no exception, and rigorous studies show that it is incredibly
difficult to have positive educational impact with computers. Technology at
best only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems; it can
make good schools better, but it makes bad schools worse.
3. Technology has a huge opportunity cost in the form of more effective nontechnology interventions.
4. Many good school systems excel without much technology.

The inescapable conclusion is that significant investments in computers, mobile phones, and
other electronic gadgets in education are neither necessary nor warranted for most school
systems. In particular, the attempt to use technology to fix underperforming classrooms (or to
replace non-existent ones) is futile. And, for all but wealthy, well-run schools, one-to-one
computer programs cannot be recommended in good conscience.
All of the evidence stands on its own, but I will tie them together with a single theory that
explains why technology is unable to substitute for good teaching: Quality primary and
secondary education is a multi-year commitment whose single bottleneck is the sustained
motivation of the student to climb an intellectual Everest. Though children are naturally
curious, they nevertheless require ongoing guidance and encouragement to persevere in the
ascent. Caring supervision from human teachers, parents, and mentors is the only known way
of generating motivation for the hours of a school day, to say nothing of eight to twelve
school years.
While computers appear to engage students (which is exactly their appeal), the engagement
swings between uselessly fleeting at best and addictively distractive at worst. No technology
today or in the foreseeable future can provide the tailored attention, encouragement,
inspiration, or even the occasional scolding for students that dedicated adults can, and thus,
attempts to use technology as a stand-in for capable instruction are bound to fail.
With respect to sustaining directed motivation, even the much-maligned rote-focused drillsergeant disciplinarian is superior to any electronic multimedia carnival. (In an October 2009
ETD article, James BonTempo also highlighted the importance of motivation. But, while
BonTempo suggested that we should seek technologies that motivate both teachers and
students, I believe todays technology is not up to the task. [Note: The author retracts this
statement and agrees with BonTempo, as his articles actually suggest that even this is not
possible if neither teachers nor students are motivated to begin with.])

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The Repetitive Cycle of Technology

For anyone concerned with high-tech in schools, two books are required reading as histories
of technology and education. The first is Larry Cubans Teachers and Machines: The
Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920, which overviews the history of films, radio,
television, and computers in American education up to the early 1980s. The second is Todd
Oppenheimers The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of
Technology. Oppenheimer also focuses primarily on US education, but updates and expands
on Cubans findings for computers in schools through the early 2000s. Both authors consider
the record of technology in schools and find it wanting. They reveal that while technologies
can have positive educational impact in restricted instances, successes pale in comparison to
failures overall. By not knowing this past history, we seem condemned to repeat it over and
over and over.
One point that both authors make is that there is a repetitive cycle of technology in education
that goes through hype, investment, poor integration, and lack of educational outcomes. The

cycle keeps spinning only because each new technology reinitiates the cycle. In 1922,
Thomas Edison claimed that movies would revolutionize our educational system. In 1945,
William Levenson, a Cleveland radio station director, suggested that portable radios in
classrooms should be integrated into school life alongside blackboards. In the 1960s,
governments under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson invested in classroom TV. In an
irrational leap of reasoning that is symptomatic of technology in education, Johnson went
from a valid lament, Unhappily, the world has only a fraction of the teachers it needs, to a
non-solution to meet the challenge through educational television.
The hubris and failures of technology projects are detailed by Cuban and Oppenheimer, but
with hindsight available to all of us, we know that none of these technologies has delivered
on their promises. If anything, we have become wary of their educational power. For
example, on the one hand, television excels as a medium for delivering information. Seduced
by this capacity in 1964, Wilbur Schramm, the father of communications studies, asked
What if the full power and vividness of television teaching were to be used to help the
schools develop a countrys new educational pattern? He was thinking, in particular, of mass
medias potential to transform education for developing countries.
The transformation never occurred, probably because as motivational as television can be, it
still falls far short of generating the motivation required for education. For every person who
falls prey to Madison Avenues latest advertisement, hundreds of others just ignore it or turn
the channel if thats true of the most persuasive television commercials, why should we
expect television to be able to regularly sustain the motivation (and not just the attention) of
easily distracted children to do the cognitive push-ups that education demands?
In the meanwhile, many of us have come to sense televisions shortcomings. Educated
parents restrict their childrens time in front of the TV, and many households ban television
altogether at its best, television is considered a cheap babysitter to hold a childs attention
when adult attention is scarce; at its worst, television caters to our weakest impulses,
glamorizes materialism, desensitizes us to violence, and lulls us into a zombie-like trance. As
a result, most people today would laugh at a school system based on watching broadcast
television programs, however educational. Yet, that was exactly the idea behind an
experiment in American Samoa in the mid-1960s, where the education of 80% of students
was based on watching educational telecasts. The program was dismantled several years later
as teachers, administrators, parents, and even students expressed dissatisfaction with the
students academic performance.
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Computers: The Latest Technology Cycle

Today, computers and mobile phones are the shiny new technologies, and they offer an even
more seductive promise. One argument goes that it was the passiveness of older technologies
that was the problem, so todays interactive digital technologies are the perfect solution.
Patrick Suppes, a pioneer in computer-aided learning suggested in 1966 that computers can
adapt mechanical teaching routines to the needs and the past performance of the individual
student. But, neither interactivity nor adaptive capacity are sufficient the key challenge in
education remains the long-term, directed motivation of the student something which no
technology today can deliver on its own, but which good teachers deliver regularly.
Of course, computers are different from radio or television, so if they are able to prove
themselves in education, we should use them. Alas, the research on computers in education
consistently arrives at a single conclusion, which at its most optimistic could be stated as
follows:
Computers can help good schools do some things better, but they do nothing positive for
underperforming schools. This means, very specifically, that efforts to fix broken schools
with technology or to substitute for missing teachers with technology invariably fail.
Mark Warschauer, the foremost authority on technology in American classrooms, has spent
countless hours studying computer projects. He writes of underperforming US schools,
placing computers and Internet connections in low-[income] schools, in and of itself, does
little to address the serious educational challenges faced by these schools. To the extent that
an emphasis on provision of equipment draws attention away from other important resources
and interventions, such an emphasis can in fact be counterproductive.
And, as for technologys capacity to even the playing field of education, he says, the
introduction of information and communication technologies in [...] schools serves to amplify
existing forms of inequality. This is a specific instance of a broader thesis I argued recently,
of technologys role as an amplifier of existing institutional forces.
In the international arena, and using experimental methodology, economists confirm these
findings. In rigorous large-scale studies in both India and Colombia, Leigh Linden at
Columbia University found that while PCs can supplement good instruction, PCs are a poor
substitute for time with teachers. Furthermore, large-scale computer roll-outs in these
countries showed no significant educational outcomes compared against students who didnt
receive computers. He suggests that one problem is that teachers dont successfully
incorporate computers into their curricula. (Nor are teachers to blame technology programs
routinely fail to account for teachers needs.)

Ana Santiago and her colleagues at the Inter-American Development Bank find a similar
story for a Peruvian One Laptop Per Child program. Three months after a large-scale roll-out,
and despite teacher, parent, and student excitement around the technology, students gained
nothing in academic achievement. Santiago also notes that even during the initial three
months, the novelty factor of the laptops appears to wane, with each week seeing less use of
the devices.
None of these results run counter to the few research studies that show how computers can
benefit education in limited ways. But, all positive instances of computers in schools are built
on strong institutional foundations that are exactly what is deficient where technology is
expected to save the day. Without the institutional base, technologys impact is zero or
negative. This should immediately cause anyone hoping to fix an underperforming classroom
to cross off technology as any part of the solution.
As Wayan Vota notes in a May 2009 ETD article, unless the institutional foundation of
teachers and administrators is built and funded properly, technology is pointless. With the
lens of motivation, its easy to understand why. Bad schools are unable to direct student
motivation towards educational goals. Since technology itself requires proper motivation for
its benefits to accrue, any school that cant direct student motivation capably will fail to do so
with technology, as well (or worse, allow technology to distract students).
The Cost Implications of Technology Investments

Educators often parrot that technology is not a panacea, by which they mean either:
1. that technology doesnt cure all educational ills or
2. that technology alone is insufficient as a solution.

Though these acknowledgments are far better than a blind faith in technology, they still belie
hidden, unjustified expectations of technology. The first interpretation suggests that
technology cures some maladies in education. But, this is exactly what doesnt happen the
prevailing evidence shows that technology does not cure unhealthy educational systems; at
best, it only augments healthy ones. The second belief is more dangerous because it is
factually correct but misleading for policy. It implies that technology can be a good solution
as long as other investments are also made; what it leaves out is that if alternate investments
of the same magnitude were made to support education directly (and not indirectly to support
technology), the educational results could be far greater.
The issues here are cost-effectiveness and opportunity cost. Of course, if the net impact of a
technology solution is zero or negative, its pointless to implement it however low the cost.
But because many educators are tempted by technologys supposed ability to lower costs, its
worthwhile to consider actual costs of well-implemented technology.
The most common error in computing costs is to assume that hardware and software are the
dominant costs of technology. In reality, the total cost of ownership (TCO) for information
technology is comfortably several times the cost of hardware, with a range of 5-10x being a
good rule of thumb. Beyond hardware, necessary costs include costs of distribution,
maintenance, power infrastructure, teacher training, repair and replacement, and curriculum
integration. (In a May 2010 ETD article, Sam Carlson, who unlike me believes in technology
for education, nevertheless highlights just how much of an investment teacher training
requires.) Additional costs often include connectivity, software development, content
production, and end-of-life costs. One analysis by Vital Wave Consulting shows the TCO of
an ultra-low-cost PC to be in the $2000-3000 range for developing country schools. A similar
analysis by OLPCnews suggests $972 over five years for OLPC (the very optimistic
advertised lifespan of an OLPC laptop), and $753 for an OLPC implementation in Nepal (cf.,
OLPCs current cost of $188). These figures are per unit, so a one-to-one laptop program
would incur these costs per-student.
Though figures like the ones above show otherwise, technology providers eagerly feed
technology-cost misconceptions. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, has been recently
touting a $1-per-week total cost for his laptops. But, a dollar a week doesnt even pay for the
device over three years, which many observers agree is a reasonable estimate of its lifetime.
It appears his accounting skills are not on par with his salesmanship. Even at $1 a week,
though, the price is out of proportion for many developing-country budgets. The government
of India, for example, spends no more than $200 per student per year for primary and
secondary school, and most of that expense goes to teacher salaries. And, while literacy rates
in India are rising, they remain around 60%. Many other developing countries spend even
less, with worse results. Does it make sense to take a quarter or more of a struggling school
systems budget and allocate it to technologies that havent even proven themselves?
With respect to costs, its worth keeping in mind the opportunity cost of technology. For
example, research by economists Ted Miguel, Michael Kremer, and others has conclusively

shown the value of 50-cent deworming pills for education. The pills free children of parasites
and eliminate one of the dominant reasons for student absenteeism in many developing
countries. At a cost of only $3.50 per student (over several years), countries with high
incidences of parasites can effectively add the equivalent of an extra year of schooling.
Similar results can be had from provision of midday meals, iron supplements, and teaching
assistants, and all at a much lower cost than that of computing technology.
As for better teaching, educator Doug Lemov enumerates a series of instructional techniques
in his book Teach Like a Champion. The techniques were compiled by Lemov after studying
hours upon hours of video of teachers who systematically outperform their peers. Most of the
techniques are conceptually simple, but have a dramatic impact on the teachers effect in the
classroom. For example, when asking a question, Lemovs recommendation to teachers is to
pose the question to the class at large, allow some time to think, and then to randomly call on
a student. The technique motivates all of the students to think, since any of them could be put
on the spot. In contrast, calling only on students who raise their hand or calling on a student
before asking the question allows other students to ignore the question entirely. Such
techniques require no additional technology and could easily be incorporated into existing
teacher training programs with marginal additional cost.
Speaking of teachers, it should be emphasized over and over that they are the primary agents
of good formal education. Without good teachers, education fails; with good teachers,
education succeeds. Technology is largely irrelevant to this equation. As evidence, we only
need to consider world-class school systems that consistently churn out high-performing
students. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the OECDs latest
instrument to measure student performance across countries. 15-year olds are assessed on
their reading, math, and science abilities, and the test attempts to measure not just rote
learning but some degree of deeper comprehension and critical thinking ability.
Finland is among the countries that routinely perform at the top on PISA, and it is renowned
for its low-tech, high-touch approach that emphasizes educational basics and relatively few
hours of school or homework. There are also school systems like that of South Korea that use
a lot of technology and also do well, but analysis of PISA results fails to show any
meaningful correlation between technology use and student performance. (Tim Kelly
attempts to use Korea as an argument for technology in schools in a May 2009 ETD article,
but that seems an unfortunate confusion of correlation with cause.) Rather, PISA summary
documents highlight that the best-performing nations have a political commitment to
universal education, high standards for achievement, and quality teachers and principals.
Notably absent is any mention of technology as a critical element of a good school system,
even though the PISA survey includes data on computers and other educational resources.
None of this should be a surprise. The world had amply demonstrated well before the
invention of the personal computer that good education is possible without information
technology. Most people born in the 1975 or earlier had no computing in their classrooms,
and it would be hard to argue that they suffered as a result; many now lead the world in their

respective spheres. Are we to believe that todays Nobel Laureates, heads of state, and
business elite received an inferior education because they were without information
technology when growing up?
When Technology in Education is Justified
In order to avoid misunderstanding, I should clarify that some uses of computers in education
can be justified, although with the ever-applicable caution that while technology can augment
good schools, it hurts poor schools.

First, in those cases where directed student motivation is assured,

technology may lessen the burden of teaching. Some cases of tertiary or
adult education may fall into this category.

Second, targeted use of computers in schools, for example, as an aid to

teach computer literacy, computer programming, or video editing, etc.,
are important as long as those uses are incorporated only as a small part
of a well-rounded curriculum.

Third, technology can help with the administration of schools record

keeping, monitoring, evaluation, etc. as long as the school system is able
to fully support the technology.

Fourth, in richer environments, where the cost of educated labor is

relatively high, careful use of well-designed software may have value in
fundamental education, particularly for remedial or drilling purposes.
Solutions offered by, for example, Carnegie Learning fall into this category,
although it should be noted again that effective use of these kinds of
technologies must occur in the context of an otherwise well-run school
system.

Fifth, again in rich environments, where the basics of education are

assured, where teachers are facile with technology, and where budgets
are unconstrained, widespread use of technology, even in a one-to-one
format, might benefit students. Warschauer does find that certain uses of
computers enhance computer literacy and writing skills, but these
outcomes are limited to well-run, well-funded schools; they are notably
absent in underperforming schools, even in the United States.

I underscore that the last two cases are specific to very wealthy, well-run school systems (as a
benchmark, the value is unlikely to emerge for school systems spending less than US$8,000
per student per year), and that none of the positive instances above pertain to
underperforming schools or to broad dissemination of technology to students.
9 Myths of Technology in Education

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Ive so far argued that technology in education has a poor historical record; that computers in
schools typically fail to have positive impact (with the rare exceptions occurring only in the
context of competent, well-funded schools); that information technology is almost never
worth its opportunity cost; and that quality education doesnt require information technology.
Though Ive only presented a smattering of the evidence above, the conclusions are clear. Put
together, the strong recommendation is that underperforming school systems should keep
their focus on improving teaching and administration, and that even good schools may want
to consider more cost-effective alternatives to technology when making supplementary
educational investments.
Unfortunately, all of this evidence doesnt provide the gut intuition required to reject
seductive rhetoric. So, I end with a point-by-point refutation of frequently heard sound bites
extolling technology in schools.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 1: 21st-century skills require 21st-century technologies. The
modern world uses e-mail, PowerPoint, and filing systems. Computers teach you those skills.
Reality: This is bad reasoning of the kind that, hopefully, genuine 21st-century skills
wouldnt allow. What exactly are the 21st-century skills that successful citizens need?
Some people define them as the 3 Rs and the 4 Cs (critical thinking, communication,
collaboration, and creativity). But, arent these the same as 20th-century skills? The skills
havent changed; only the proportion of people requiring them.

Of course, the tools that people use at work and at home have changed, but the use of these
tools is easy to learn compared with the deep ability to think and work effectively. As far as I
know, not in the 500+ years since Gutenberg invented the printing press did anyone suggest
that every school, to say nothing of every student, needed a mini-printing press to learn
printing skills. (From the 1960s through the 1990s, schools incorporated typing half-heartedly
into their curricula, but even that was relegated to a one-year elective.)
Today, any idiot can learn to use Twitter. But, forming and articulating a cogent argument in
any medium SMS text messages, PowerPoint, e-mails, or otherwise requires good
thinking, writing, and communication skills. Those skills might be channeled through
technology, but they hardly require technology to acquire. Similarly, any fool can learn to
use a computer. But, the underlying math required to do financial accounting or
engineering requires solid mathematical preparation that requires working through problem
sets Einstein didnt grow up with computers, but modern physics would be delighted to
have more Einsteins.
We need to distinguish between the need to learn the tools of modern life (easy to pick up,
and getting easier by the day, thanks to better technology!) and learning the critical thinking
skills that make a person productive in an information economy (hard to learn, and not really
any easier with information technology). Based on my own experience trying to teach
undereducated English-speaking adults how to use Google, Im quite certain that what
limited their ability to capitalize on the Internet was reading comprehension and critical
thinking skills, not computer literacy skills.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 2: Technology X allows interactive, adaptive, constructivist,
student-centered, [insert educational flavor of the month (EFotM) here] learning.
Reality: All of that may be true, but without directed motivation of the student, no sustained
learning actually happens, with or without technology. Good teachers are interactive,
adaptive, constructivist, student-centered, and capable of EFotM, but on top of all of that,
they are also capable of something that no technology for the foreseeable future can do:
generate ongoing motivation in students. If education only required an interactive, adaptive,
constructivist, student-centered, EFotM medium, then the combination of an Erector Set and
an encyclopedia ought to be sufficient for education.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 3: But, wait, its still easier for teachers to arouse interest with
technology X than with textbooks.
Reality: Maybe a little bit at first. But, the novelty factor of most technologies quickly wears
off, and those which dont tend to turn viewers into zombies rather than engaged learners.
In addition, this comment is a real insult to good teachers everywhere. Good teachers are
exactly those who can engage students creatively, regardless of the aids available to them.
Technology might amplify the impact of good teachers, but it wont fix bad teaching.

Pro-Technology Rhetoric 4: Teachers are expensive. Its exactly because teachers are absent
or poorly trained that low-cost technology is a good alternative.
Reality: Low-cost technologies are not so low cost when total cost of ownership is taken into
account and put in the economic context of low-income schools. Furthermore, technology
cannot fix broken educational systems. If teachers are absent or poorly trained, the only
proper solution is to invest in better teachers, better training, and better administration even
if its expensive. As they say in KIPP schools, there are no shortcuts!
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 5: Textbooks are expensive. For the price of a couple of
textbooks, you might as well get a low-cost PC.
Reality: Anyone who says this is using American predatory pricing of textbooks as a guide.
In India, a typical text book costs 7.5-25 rupees, or 15-50 cents. For $1-3, you could buy all
the textbooks a child will need for the year. It can be more expensive in other countries where
printing costs are not as low as in India, but there is no reason why a textbook needs to cost
more than a few dollars. Please, lets stop propagating this myth.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 6: We have been trying to improve education for many years
without results. Thus, its time for something new: Technology X!
Reality: Technology has never fixed a broken educational system, so if anything is getting
old, its the attempt to patch bad education with technology. If other efforts arent working,
maybe the school system needs to be thrown out and rebuilt from the ground up, as Qatar
recently did with its education ministry. There are plenty of new things to try that dont
require new technology. (Though, novelty for its own sake doesnt make sense, either. There
are plenty of old examples of good education, too.) It should be cautioned though, that efforts
to improve teachers and administrators is itself a multi-year, if not multi-decade effort. Again,
there are no shortcuts!
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 7: Study Z shows that technology is helpful.
Reality: Technology can be beneficial. But, its always worth looking at two things more
carefully: First, how good was the educational environment in Study Z without the
technology? Invariably, it will have been good; often, very good. This means it was secretsauce + technology that caused the benefit, not technology by itself. Second, what was the
total cost of the technology (including training, maintenance, curriculum, etc.)? Inevitably, it
will be a factor of 5-10 more than the cost of hardware. Both issues suggest that for ailing
schools, technology is not the answer.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 8: Computer games, simulations, and other state-of-the-art
technologies are really changing things.
Reality: This article was written with current and near-term technologies in mind. Its
possible that future technologies will not fit the theses. Certainly, a humanoid robot

indistinguishable from a good teacher could work wonders! More realistically, its likely that
sophisticated software could become richer in the range of things they can teach and the
degree to which they sustain motivation. But, any such advances should pass lab trials, pilot
runs, controlled experiments, and cost-effectiveness analyses before anyone starts advocating
them for widespread use. So far, no technology has met this bar computers running existing
software certainly havent.
Pro-Technology Rhetoric 9: Technology is transformative, revolutionary, and otherwise
stupendous! Therefore, it must be good for education.
Reality: This myth is pervasive because it is so easy to believe and because we want to
believe it so badly. After all, with computers, we can publish our own newsletters, buy gifts in
our pajamas, and find the best Italian restaurant in town. And, it would be nice if all we had to
do was to sit every child in front of a computer for 6 hours a day to turn them into educated,
upright citizens.
But, why do we believe this? It makes no sense. We dont expect that playing football video
games makes a child a great athlete. We dont believe that watching YouTube will turn our
kids into Steven Spielbergs. We dont think that socializing on Facebook will turn people into
electable government officials. And, if none of those things work, then why do we expect it
of writing, history, science, or mathematics?
A good education is second only to parenting in the importance it has in raising capable,
upright members of society. We would never think to replace parenting with technology (and
when we do at times, we do it with shame, and only because were too damn tired to parent,
not because gadgets are superior to us). Why do we keep trying to replace teachers?
Honesty in Technology Failure
As if to underscore these points, last month, the Azim Premji Foundation, a well-funded nonprofit in India and arguably the worlds largest non-profit organization dedicated to working
with computers in education, made a startling and courageous confession. They had
worked for over half a decade with tens of thousands of schools, providing computers,
training teachers, designing whole software libraries in 18 languages, and integrating material
with state curricula. Aspects of their programs and their software could be criticized, but their
methods were as thoughtful and as heartfelt as any technology-for-education effort I have
witnessed, with frequent research and evaluations to confirm outcomes. Their conclusion?
[W]hen we took stock at a fundamental level, we realized that [our whole effort in
computer-aided learning] was at best a qualified failure there was practically no impact in a
sustained, systemic manner on learning.
Anurag Behar, co-CEO of the foundation cited a number of issues (the full article is worth
reading), but chief among the problems were that any deficiencies in administration and
teaching were not overcome by technology. He notes: At its best, the fascination with ICT as

a solution distracts from the real issues. At its worst, ICT is suggested as substitute to solving
the real problems, for example, why bother about teachers, when ICT can be the teacher.
This perspective is lethal. He concludes with a paraphrasing of what he learned from
education leaders in Finland and Canada (two countries who consistently do well on PISA):
not a dollar will we invest in ICT, every dollar that we have will go to teacher and school
leader capacity building.
In short, there are no technology shortcuts to good education.