All or Nothing- Or, a Pedagogical Ponzi Scheme

Please, please please go read this blog about access to technology in classrooms, and take the time to read the comments.

Fascinating.

What a tough question. If one classroom has the opportunity to get additional technology should the school turn it down because all of the classrooms can't get it?

There is another part of this question though that has not come up for debate from what I could see in the comments. It is this: if the school CAN get the equipment but cannot use or maintain it because of existing facilities then should they turn it down?

Again, another tough, tough question.

I particularly enjoyed one comment about the first part of the question (the "fairness" part if you will...) - "Maybe we can’t help all the students, I guess that is an impossible dream. But if we save a class, that is 30 students who will go out and effect 30 more each. Those 900 will save others, it’s exponential. Maybe it’s a pedagogical Ponzi scheme but if we don’t start with a single one, then we still stay at zero forever. "

I think I agree with the camp of "If you can get it than do so, it's better to help 5 students than none." Plus, as many of the commenters pointed out having is not using or using effectively. Simple personality differences in teachers and teaching styles may make some teacher adept at using this technology whereas others may not. Really, is it that beneficial to have a smart board in a classroom of a teacher who will just use it as a replacement for the old fashioned overhead projector and not do anything new with it? And this isn't to say teachers haven't and are not doing now brilliant things with that overhead projector- but there simply are some people who are better suited for the technology than others.

However if you're in the classroom or the teacher or the parent of a student in the class who doesn't get the technology and who is able to use it would it be frustrating? Absolutely!

Again, this is a tough question. I wouldn't want to be an administrator in one of those schools that is facing this question, but I'm sure it's probably pretty common.

Teachers? Students? Counselors? What is your experience with this? Where do you fall?