A 360-degree Discussion about EdTech and a New York Times Series on Digital Learning

It seems as if every month or so, the New York Times publishes a story that it bills as being part of its "Grading the Digital School" series. Recently, a Times staff writer took a look at a Silicon Valley campus of a Waldorf School, a chain of schools that takes pride in its no-tech approach to education, where, according to the article, "the chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard." 

The premise of the article is that while many schools are rushing to incorporate technology into curriculums, the designers and marketers of much of today's tech, send their children to a school where there is no technology in the classroom and educators ask parents to, when the students are at home, keep their children away from computers, TV, and other media as much as possible.

To say the article, as well as the series, has rankled advocates on all sides of the issue is an understatement.

In the Oct. 30 Sunday Review, New York Times editors published a series of comments about the Waldorf School story. The comments ranged from an editor of Education Technology to parent with children who are attending, or have attended Waldorf Schools. Teachers, who use technology or who want to throw computers out of their classroom window, spoke up. So did parents who love how technology engages their children, and parents who would love to disengage their children from technology. 

Click here to read the range of responses and the spirited discussion surrounding the digital classroom.