Mooresville’s Shining Example (It’s Not Just About the Laptops)

From Alan Schwarz in the New York Times series “Grading the Digital School”:

Sixty educators from across the nation roamed the halls and ringed the rooms of East Mooresville Intermediate School, searching for the secret formula. They found it in Erin Holsinger’s fifth-grade math class.

There, a boy peering into his school-issued MacBook blitzed through fractions by himself, determined to reach sixth-grade work by winter. Three desks away, a girl was struggling with basic multiplication — only 29 percent right, her screen said — and Ms. Holsinger knelt beside her to assist. Curiosity was fed and embarrassment avoided, as teacher connected with student through emotion far more than Wi-Fi.

“This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not our past.”

Ubiquitous learning has never been about devices but about what can be achieved with their use. This article re-emphasizes the point. Digital tools do not teach children; teachers teach with the tools by creating conditions that facilitate children’s learning. Network-connected laptops in schools allow new learning conditions. Thoughtful, energetic, and perseverant school systems take advantage of the possibilities. All benefit.

For the article…