Staff Editorial
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District, in conjunction with Mira Costa’s administration, is considering using money raised from grants and donations to purchase iPads for eight select Costa teachers, install wi-fi and establish more technological support as part of a larger technology improvement plan.
Although the program provides the much-needed improvements of better internet speed and campus-wide wi-fi, it does not focus on updating vital components of the technological infrastructure and lacks research in improvements applicable to high schools.
One teacher in each department was selected to receive an iPad for school use.The administration hopes that these teachers will test the viability of mobile devices in the classroom and then increase demand among others for classroom iPads.
If the pilot program is a success, the administration plans to provide an iPad to any teacher that wants it in the 2011-2012 school year.
It is not yet clear that iPads will even be beneficial teaching assistants in most high school classrooms.
Studies done by the MBUSD and administration have mostly been limited to the applications of mobile devices in primary education, not secondary education.
According to many teachers, their opinions about Costa’s technology situation were not solicited or considered. As a result, the administration cannot assume that mobile devices will improve teaching without input from the teachers.
Before any additional upgrades, like mobile devices, are considered, problems with the current computer infrastructure must be resolved.
Most of Costa’s computers run severely outdated software and lack the necessary speed, processing power, and memory necessary to be functional.
Although the administration has reasoned that mobile devices would be easier to install in classrooms than upgrading the entire computer system, doing so still leaves a gaping hole in the technological infrastructure.
Even if it doesn’t make financial sense to upgrade all of the student-available computers, teachers need functioning computers to do their jobs. Furthermore, mobile devices like the iPad can only be used to their fullest extent when its data is stored on a serviceable computer.
The district and administration also did not comprehensively investigate how students, the supposed beneficiaries of any technology improvement program, think technology should be integrated into the classroom.
Although the program is well-intentioned, allocation of the available funds should be prioritized to reflect the best implementation of technology in the classroom and the most immediate technological needs of the school.
The administration must take into account what students and teachers believe the role of technology in the classroom should be, what must be done to improve the overall state of technology on campus, and how effective each component of the proposed plan will actually be in changing the way students learn.
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