Ed tech's Law of Amplification

Across all education-technology projects, a single, simple pattern holds true, writes Kentaro Toyama for The Atlantic. The "Law of Amplification" dictates that since technology's primary effect is to amplify human activity, in education, technologies amplify whatever pedagogical capacity already exists. Technology is merely a tool that augments human power, an obvious fact with profound consequences when overlooked. Amplification explains why large-scale roll outs of educational technology rarely succeed. In any representative set of schools, some are achieving, others failing. Computers may benefit some (the ones highlighted in pilot studies), but distract weaker schools from their core mission: Knowledge around their use isn't already in place, or easily harnessed to existing strengths. Administrators rarely allocate sufficient resources to adapt curricula or train teachers. Outside of school, technology amplifies a child's propensities to both learn or distract herself. Propensities vary from child to child, but usually distraction wins out where adult guidance is absent. In terms of educational inequality, what ails American education can be attributed to many things; none of these are a lack of computers. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.