Education and technology

«Tools do not define pedagogy, but pedagogy can leverage tools. The first step is understanding what the technology is about, when and where it is useful, and how it can and will be manipulated by users for their own desires.»

This quote comes from Mark’s blog: http://www.proticblog.net/profs//index.php?blogId=29
Who took it from Mario tout de go’s blog (if you want more info go look for the blogs)

What a quote! What grabbed my attention were the steps specially the second one “when and where it is useful”. You know, I come from Mexico and education is not like in Quebec. In Mexico, private schools are very popular due to the population growth: we have not enough space in public schools for all the students and not enough money to build new schools (or actually we don’t know how to manage it but that’s another story) In private schools we can find computers in the “computer room” but not in all classroom as we do here. But in public schools, it is very difficult to get computers and all sort of technology. This is the reason why I was against implementing technology in my teaching. Now my perspective had changed. As the quote says, we must know “when and where” technology is useful. You may say I am going way back but I remember when I was little (and living in Mexico) the government started implementing teaching by T.V. They put televisions in rural places so students could have some education. It is true that the quality was not the same as having the teacher in front of the class but at least education arrived to those rural places. If a T.V. could do that, imagine how much education in rural places has improved since the arrival of the internet. Technology may not be exploited in Mexico as much as in Quebec (yet) but it will, it is just a matter of time…

Daniela