Opinion: Computers can't replace real teachers - CNN.com - 0 views
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Tech visionary Steve Jobs understood better than anyone the impulse to believe that technology can solve our most complex societal problems.
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"We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people. ... I wish it was as simple as giving it over to the computer."
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In every classroom where students are excelling against the odds, there's a teacher who's empowered her students to work hard to realize their potential.
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Whenever I ask the leaders of successful schools their secret, the answer is almost always the same: people, people, people.
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Research confirms that great teachers change lives.
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Students with one highly effective elementary school teacher are more likely to go to college, less likely to become pregnant as teens and earn tens of thousands more over their lifetimes.
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Faced with the choice between giving every child in a school his or her own laptop or putting 30 of them in a classroom with one exceptional teacher, there's no question which is the better investment.
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In a recent article on this site, Richard Galant asked whether we'd be better off ditching teachers, giving kids computers and leaving them to their own devices to teach themselves and each other.
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he idea is based on the work of Sugata Mitra, an education professor who set up an experiment in India where he gave children in the slums access to a "computer in the wall" and found that without guidance, they were soon using it to learn on their own.
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Galant's piece could leave the impression that teachers are obsolete and that their main function is to enforce discipline and administer tests. (Instead of spending money on teachers, Mitra recruits cheerleading "grannies," older women from the UK who offer the kids words of praise and encouragement via Skype.)
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he idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success
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"My first task was to build a sense of responsibility in the girls towards their own learning and success, which would be achieved by collaborating with other members of the class and the community at large," she says.
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But we must be wary of concluding that we should focus our energy on technology rather than people.
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Computers cannot create a culture of excellence and push students to meet high expectations.
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Technology is a tool, not a silver bullet. And like all tools, it can be helpful or harmful depending on how we use them.
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Children growing up in poverty need all the support and nurturing from adults that they can get.
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If we want a real revolution in education, we should make an all-out effort to attract and keep our best people in our schools.
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We can't outsource the human connections at the heart of the learning experience.
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Transforming the lives and learning of our children will take more than machines. It will take the best of our human resources.
