View Full Version : Technology and its future role in highschools...
Ashley Christine
10-04-2005, 20:05
Alright.. I have been thinking about some random things. [I think wayyyy too much!] But anyways, one of the things I thought about is how technology is getting more and more important.
Do any of you guys think that things such as robotics would/could eventually take over the role of sports like football, basketball etc... or become more important?
And if you think so, what effect do you think it would have on our lives and everything??
-Ashley
Alex Cormier
10-04-2005, 20:09
Well i wrote my senior project research paper on Artificial Intelligence will be one of the top technological necessities in the near future. i also uploaded it as a white paper, it has some great info in it. i see technology getting stronger and more important for high schools.
Eugenia Gabrielov
10-04-2005, 20:10
I think it's a really interesting question you pose.
The fact that Robotics is starting to become an extra curricular activity in some schools that students multi-task with athletics shows that it's becoming a priority.
However, I don't think Robotics as a club will ever really dominate the school scene, whether in highschool or in college. There are just people who aren't and won't be interested.
:) I think the goal though, is maybe trying to give the opportunity to as many areas as possible, so that it's available and students can choose. I don't think it's that crucial that robotics dominates the scene, but more that awareness is out there and non-involved students understand it and see it as an option and a resource.
- Genia
DarkJedi613
10-04-2005, 20:36
It won't outdistance sports, theres just too many people who think that robotics is like unimportant and uses up money that could be used elseware.
Actually I think hands on technology and science will be becoming less and less - I do not think it should be the case, but it costs money for hands on learning...its cheaper to do theory. :( Unfortunatly around here many technology departments are being downsized (or even cut :ahh: ).
Because of our budget, if it gets shot down again our Java/Web Design/Computer Independent Study teacher will be gone. So I think it comes down to money. If your school has money, it will be able to purchase the things it needs for technology.
I actually had a dream the other night that Rochester Robotics grew big enough to that they host a Rochester Robotics league as a recognized high school sport. Teams hold qualifying regionals every week (no elimination rounds or awards) after about 6 weeks of qualification an elimaination round tournamnet is held. The winning alliance earns a trip to the championship(because there are over 2000 teams and the championship can't host 1000 teams).After that the next week an awards banquet is held.
Alex Cormier
10-04-2005, 21:07
I actually had a dream the other night that Rochester Robotics grew big enough to that they host a Rochester Robotics league as a recognized high school sport. Teams hold qualifying regionals every week (no elimination rounds or awards) after about 6 weeks of qualification an elimaination round tournamnet is held. The winning alliance earns a trip to the championship(because there are over 2000 teams and the championship can't host 1000 teams).After that the next week an awards banquet is held.
what does your wife feed you for dinner?
great thoughts though!
nobrakes8
10-04-2005, 21:08
In the Connecticut Technical High School system we are implementing Digital Classrooms. Wright Tech is supposedly 100% digital. Kaynor Tech is 100% digital in social studies and recieved 2 million dollars in laptops and electronic equiptment for our Physics labs.
A digital classroom use web based learning units teachers from all 17 technical schools publish. Instead of useing a text book, we use the internet and do independent study on a subject, then after everybody does their individual topic on the subject the students meet and talk about what they learned on.
We found a few failures as my class was the test mice as we were the first class to go through the system for four years. We realized we hate it when teachers don't talk to us. Some of the teachers that have a good sense of humor make their classes boring because we walk in and we're told "This is where you can find your assignment, when it's done print it out and you can use the computers until everybody is done".. Kids may hate lectures and stuff, but when you're doing assignments on your own just handing in essay after essay after essay, you do wish your teachers had lectures and gave you a quiz and test once in a while.
Also in math classes we used to have to go onto like math.com or regentsprep.org and go through lessons, then we'd need to write a paragraph about what we learned (CTHS has/had a writeing across the board policy to write in every class).. After one term our teacher decided to go back to the old fashioned way because students can't learn math and science just by reading a website, and more kids skipped math and science classes because they found it pointless when every other day you had to write about math on top of all the other essays in social studies, english, and even art.
In 2007 the Kaynor Technical High School will complete a 53 million dollar renovation, they will supposedly update our drafting shop to a 4D Technical Drafting shop, they will supposedly be moving our off campus machine shop and production room (only facility in Connecticut NIMS certified) next to our two current machine shops in the facility. All three machine shops will be equipted with MasterCAM and Asprie CAM software. In 2007 Kaynor will also be 100% digital with every academic classrom equipt with 24-30 Dell Desktops, and every shop theory room also equipt with 24-30 Dell or Gateway desktops.
Our school is a manufacturing based school. When we recieved the grant in 2001 industry had a major say in what our school was going to do with the new facility.
On the other side...
The local school in my town which is the home of Team #1071 is down sizeing their technology department. Rumor is, is that they will be shutting down each department as a teacher quits, retires, or transfers to another position. From the feeling the kids on my team told me, is the school is just giving them the attitude "Well you should transfer to Wilcox Tech or Kaynor Tech if you want those type classes"
I think that technology will be show its self more and more in high schools, and not just the well funded ones. in the early to mid 1990's schools did not have fast or decent access to the Internet, now every school has at least a T1 line . Every minute of every day technology advances and becomes more wide spread. I think that one day high schools will all have automated parts of the school, whether it be small as automatic doors or automated teachers. The technology is coming, its just a matter of time.
spears312
10-04-2005, 21:14
In our community we are fortunate enough to have a magnet program devoted to technology and other sciences, from which come nearly all of Heatwave 312's students and two of our mentors.
In the program, called C.A.T. (center for advanced technologies), we have the opportunity to come in contact with different technologies every day. From our internal network to our advanced computer classes and from our multimedia classes with near studio quality equipment to our research/robotics class, I believe the C.A.T. program is an example of the possibilities the role of technology in the future of high school education.
psquared89
10-04-2005, 21:22
We found a few failures as my class was the test mice
Few failures? Were the test mice... :cool:
what does your wife feed you for dinner?
great thoughts though!
I had tuna steak tonight.
DarkJedi613
11-04-2005, 08:42
I think that technology will be show its self more and more in high schools, and not just the well funded ones. in the early to mid 1990's schools did not have fast or decent access to the Internet, now every school has at least a T1 line . Every minute of every day technology advances and becomes more wide spread. I think that one day high schools will all have automated parts of the school, whether it be small as automatic doors or automated teachers. The technology is coming, its just a matter of time.
That's true, however, many schools do not seem to think its important to have hands on technology. I.e. they will add computers, and tvs etc. to class rooms. But not new machinary or new material for science labs, etc.
For example in physics we learn about electricity and circuits, etc. but we don't actually get to see that in action. We don't build the circuits or see the effects by adding another load in parallel or series. Learning from a text book is great, but unless you put it to use you're not really learning and you will forget almost everything learned from "book learning". By doing it you remember and contain more. It's just a much more effective way of learning in my opinion. :]
Do any of you guys think that things such as robotics would/could eventually take over the role of sports like football, basketball etc... or become more important?
Nope. I don't think it will take the role of, or become more important than, sports.
1) We all think that it's super important to learn about technology. But there are people who also think it's super important to get people to exersise instead of programming a device to do physical activity for people. We are becomming an overweight nation (myself included). Think how much pizza you probably ate during build - that's not even close to healthy.
2) Fancy technology intimidates most people. Maybe because most people never had a chance to learn about technology... ah, but that's another topic...
3) A group of kids can go outside, and with a few dollars, start playing baseball or basketball or football. How much did YOUR team spend last year? (Don't answer that, we don't want to know.) Even if you wanted to do robotics on your own, you still need some money.
But I hope that robotics and other tech-activites can get more recognition (and I think that they are.) But I don't think it would, or should, take the place of sports.
After all, my younger sister has to crush me in something... (swimming, running, biking, volleyball, etc...)
Ashley Christine
11-04-2005, 18:55
Interesting veiwpoints and ideas you all. I still dont know where I stand. All that I know is that I think tech shud be important in learning/schools. I also think they spend too much money on the football players [and they never spent enough on cheerleaders... but now that i can cheerlead.. the money shud go to tech! lol just kidding!!]
-Ashley
For example in physics we learn about electricity and circuits, etc. but we don't actually get to see that in action. We don't build the circuits or see the effects by adding another load in parallel or series. Learning from a text book is great, but unless you put it to use you're not really learning and you will forget almost everything learned from "book learning". By doing it you remember and contain more. It's just a much more effective way of learning in my opinion. :]Unfortunately you picked a really expensive subject to talk about. Depending on what you want to do it's horrendously expensive to equip a laboratory with anything beyond a multimeter and power supply. Then again I never really used anything beyond a multimeter,resistor box, and power supply in my physics course. Im not even sure if the multimeter I used was digital either. Personally, my high school has a cool technology department. I was one of the last people to actually get to create and etch their own circuit boards in an electronics class. Hehehe... I also got to play with electrophoresis to look at fake DNA.
The biggest problem of robotics overtaking major sports is the accessibility of it. Most people like to go see the sports, many times in part to see improvement and the more you see a team the more attached you get to it. Because robotics is generally a 1 or 2 event thing (1 regional, 2 regionals, 1 regional & championship) and that none of the events take place at a schools own location (students would have to travel quite a ways to see a competition) it would be hard for students to become attached and to love robotics the way they do other sports.
scitobor 617
13-04-2005, 00:38
I live in a county where every high school and middle school student is issued an Apple iBook. About 24,000 iBooks are in service. We are now in to the fourth year of this program and now more than ever, I'm sad to say that I think the investment was a waste of money. I've seen few students actually use their iBooks as little more than $1000 Media players or coasters. Teachers have become aware of the abuses of the iBooks and now rarly use them in class activeties. With that said I believe that technology in my county will decrease and eventually disapear because of student abuses of the iBooks. I believe that in the next few years the school board will find a happy medium of iBook usage that will create more of a place for the iBooks as more of a learning tool for a greater percentage of the students and teachers involved.
Remember, just because technoloy is present in the classroom does not mean it will be a good learning tool compared to a good old fashoined book.
Technology and its future role in high schools will only be on the increase. Of course, sometimes you must chop off a finger to save the hand. From what I have heard, in my old high school, the administration was thinking of eliminating the technology department all together. This would include: woods, metals, photography, CAD, Digital technology. Of course this is just a rumor and I doubt they would close down all of that.
But yes, I do agree that technology in the classrooms is increasing. If you notice, more professionals are using Power Point to teach. Others are relying on video conferencing.
Why stop there? The more technology a school has the better it will prepare its students for the next steps. Whether it be in the military, a skilled trade, or college.
DarkJedi613
13-04-2005, 08:30
Unfortunately you picked a really expensive subject to talk about. Depending on what you want to do it's horrendously expensive to equip a laboratory with anything beyond a multimeter and power supply. Then again I never really used anything beyond a multimeter,resistor box, and power supply in my physics course. Im not even sure if the multimeter I used was digital either. Personally, my high school has a cool technology department. I was one of the last people to actually get to create and etch their own circuit boards in an electronics class. Hehehe... I also got to play with electrophoresis to look at fake DNA.
Not necessarily, there are the circuit boards that you just plug things into to create the circuits, they can be used every year etc. They wouldn't be that expensive. I can't think of another example right now, but I do not agree that its as expensive as you think - I'm not saying we should be soldering connections and stuff, you could even just use a battery and wires with alligator clips on it, etc. My point was that the theory of teaching should be changed. :)
In our school we have TVs in every class room (connected to the teacher's computer), hardly any teachers use them (none more than two or three times a year). Total waste of money that could have been spent better. In my opinion Proximas should have been bought not for every class room, but two or three per department.
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