Technology is the key to education’s successful future where children learn to ask questions not recite information, John Merrow the former “PBS News Hour” Education Correspondent said Saturday, Oct. 24, at Northwestern University.
As part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Merrow spoke on his belief that the U.S. schooling system must be transformed by “technology, skilled teachers, and a change in values.” Roughly 300 people, many current and retired teachers, watched as Merrow also revealed part of his short film, “School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired Classroom,” that showed how schools across the country were incorporating technology.
“The school of today exists to sort kids and discard some,” said Merrow. “The school of today essentially asks, ‘How intelligent are…show more content… Blending, Merrow said, is mixing teachers and computers to create a personalized learning experience.
“The school of tomorrow may still be like a factory,” Merrow said. “But the students are the workers and knowledge is the product.”
Technology is beginning to shape how students learn whether through the proliferation of e-textbooks, online learning-management systems like Canvas, or Skype for online classes. Although the scholastic changes Merrow described seemed inevitable to some, others questioned how applicable technology is in an actual classroom.
“It is not practical,” said Holly Carter, a second-grade teacher in Crest Hill, Illinois. “I liked his attitude towards teaching and towards learning. And [Technology] is a great tool. But it’s not the answer. The teacher is the answer still.”
Considering how technology constantly changes and upgrades, audience members stressed, in their remarks, that students are not the only ones having to learn new