I forgot to mention... It's a boy!!!

In an earlier post I mentioned my feelings the night before I was to enter "fatherhood". Now I am proud to announce the birth of my son Jeremy on the 1st of this month. It has only taken me a little over two weeks to announce it, but I have been busy getting used to this life adjustment. It is definitely worth it.

Technology Maven

After reading about the viewpoints of Seymour Papert on Technology in Schools, I could honestly say that I agree with him 100%. He begins his article with a comparison of the emergence of technology in the school system with the improvements made to cross-continental transportation in the early 19th century. Papert describes the design of today's schools as being the stagecoaches of the early 19th century. The use of technology in these schools would be likened to airplanes in travel.

Based on this comparison Papert posed the question on whether incremental change could lead us from the school of yesterday to the school of tomorrow? When he compared the design of the school system to a "stagecoach", he said that it was not possible to go from the stagecoach to a jet airplane with a series of small improvements. His point was to show that education in schools will not improve by making just a few small changes.

As I continued to read the article by Papert, I became interested in another point that was made as it related to math education. I currently teach mathematics so it was something of importance to me. With advancements in technology that have taken place certain math skills are becoming obsolete or have very little value to the student as they go through life. One skill that was mentioned in the article was long division. In a time when calculators are being used more often, one does not need to know long division to understand the mathematical idea of dividing various amounts or numbers.