Let's not forget the external factors in play...

Leaving no child with “insert new technology here,” isn’t anything new. In order to achieve academic progress, a plan of implementation and proper training must be put into action when it comes to the introduction of new technology in a classroom.

Uruguay began their Plan CEIBAL in 2007 with the goal to give every primary student a laptop. The plan was a part of the much bigger initiative One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), an organization that wanted to distribute these devices to children in developing countries. In Uruguay, the students used the laptop at school and they could also take it home.

By 2009, according to the BBC, 362,000 students and 18,000 teachers were already taking part of the program. Teachers had the option of how much they wanted to implement the tool inside their curriculum. Of all the children given these laptops, 70 percent of them didn’t have access to one at home.

The expectation was that with computers in hand would make schools “connected, particularly those in rural areas, where many still don’t have internet access.” One teacher even called it a “revolution.”

But it was far from it…

The Instituto de Economía in Uruguay (Economics Institute in English) published a report in Spanish showing that the laptops had no impact in the students’ academic performance in the subject of math and reading. They concluded that technology alone could not impact the student’s learning by itself.

To read a little bit more about the results you can read the Inter-American Development Bank blog which is in English.  

The percentage of students using the laptops “every” or “almost every day” dropped from 41 percent in 2009 to a bit over 4 percent in 2012. Students used the laptop to download information more than 40 percent of the time and only 8 percent of the “activity was ‘writing a text.”

Technology alone cannot be the only playing factor in increasing student academic performance. There are many other intersectional factors that come into play like qualified teachers, well equipped classrooms and a good support system and environment.

Because, after all, it shouldn’t be about appearing to be on the path toward progress but about actually accomplishing objectives. What good is giving every kid a laptop or tablet if they are not going to being trained on how to use it to further their academic education?

In the New York Times article, “No Child Left Untableted,” chief executive of Amplify Joel Klein said that it’s not just about “stick[ing] a kid in front of a screen for eight hours and hope it works.” It’s about how teachers use the device and how they implement it in their classrooms.

“If it’s not transformative,” he told The New York Times. “It’s not worth it.”

Klein said that K-12 isn’t working even though the amount of money spent on education has doubled. But these tablets are still not going to be worth it if we don’t take into consideration the environment the students live in. Because after school, where they have access to internet, they will eventually go home. And what if they don’t have access to internet there? Then what?

And under what circumstance are they able to use this technology? I’ve heard from one high school student in the panhandle of Texas who said she paid $30 dollars for the borrow. What about those who can’t afford it, I asked. Then they don’t get to take one home. Meanwhile another student in central Texas said that her school allowed her to borrow the tablet for a fee of $50. The next year, her school allowed the students to borrow them without a charge. Unfair, the high schooler said, because she had to pay as a freshman.

I am not against implementing technology, but we cannot ignore the external factors that also come into play. I think it is important for children to be taught digital literacy, but placing technology in front of a student is not even addressing the issue. If the goal is to improve academic performance, then we should also address the learning environment, quality of teachers and what is expected of students. We need to keep the information that is being taught up to date, not just the learning equipment.