Tea at Trianon: Are Technology and AI Destroying Education And The Future For Our Children?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 6, 2025

Are Technology and AI Destroying Education And The Future For Our Children?

From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

I taught school for thirty years at grade levels from 1st grade to Seniors in high school. During most of those years, technology played at least a small part in education. It started with computer labs in schools and accelerated to the point where each student had either a laptop or iPad/Chromebook in his/her hands in every class, every day.

Don't forget to add smart phones to the equation.

I didn't mind teaching with technology. It made it easier for me to develop lessons, communicate with parents and fellow educators, and track grades and student progress. I could effectively use video clips in my classroom presentation. I could actively engage students in a lesson through technology and make even the oldest of literature relevant to today's events via side-by-side comparisons electronically. I could even check student writing for plagiarism with a click of a button.

But I also had to monitor student usage of technology in the classroom constantly.

It got so bad in classrooms that teachers were given a program to monitor what students were doing on their computers/iPads. A teacher had a computer screen filled with the names of his/her students and a picture of the screen of that student's device. A teacher could turn off a student's device or even take a screen shot of what the student was doing to send home to parents or give to administrators. It was effective, when it worked. Like many things, students found a way to get around the program and any blocks put on certain websites by the county.

Our county adopted a program where every student had a laptop in their hands in 2005. The program was supposed to increase test scores and academic achievement, but it hasn't worked. Now, in 2024, students have had access to technology for 19 years and the county's test scores are abysmal. In Reading/Language Arts 47.3% of students scored proficient. In Math, it is 18.3%. (Read more.)