Barseghian

Barseghian’s article provides an unbiased opinion on the applicability of the phenomenal ‘School of One’ concept in the current learning environment. To achieve this, Barseghian carries out a comparison of the virtual setting against the traditional classroom environment. She discovers that in as much as there are numerous benefits that can be accrued from the adoption of the ‘School of One’ concept, more needs to be done by education policy makers to provide proper guidelines for its implementation. She also indulges fellow co-founder of the ‘School of One’ concept, Christopher Rush, into the debate to give authority to the information she is passing across to her audience. By doing this, she is able to invite other education entrepreneurs like herself to the discussion with little effort.

Using his article, Barseghian intends to reach out to education stakeholders, who include teachers, parents, education policy makers, school administrators, teachers and education entrepreneurs. By doing so, she opens a discussion forum in which she provides expert analysis, but allows responses from the entire education fraternity. For example, one respondent, Erika Burton, who distinguishes herself as an education entrepreneur, supports Barseghian’s proposition by saying that there is a need to revamp the education system through adoption of new methodologies suited for the 21^st century. This article is important in my research topic because it will provide support information on the appropriateness of modern day education technologies, which have rendered the traditional classroom settings meaningless. Additionally, it will also build on the teaching options provided under the virtual classroom setting and how these are beneficial to the current generation of students.

Richtel, M. (2011, September 2). In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores: New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=all

Richtel’s article provides a critical examination of the strengths and weakness in the adoption of a technology guided learning system. The strong message passed across is the fact that adoption of technology will lead to a massive decline in the already troubled education system. To support her view, Richtel indulges several other authorities in the education system. For example, Karen Cator, the director of education technology at the U.S Department of Education supports, who she quotes as saying “scores are flat”. Thus, she reprimands the entire education fraternity for adopting a liberalist view on the matter of education technology. In this regard, her audience consists of teachers, students, education policy makers, district education authorities, governmental education authorities, and education entrepreneurs.

Richtel’s article intends to portray how serious the situation has become and the manner in which there is high negligence among stakeholders. She uses an actual teaching situation through the eyes of Ms Furman to showcase the impact that technology has on teacher-student interaction. Consequently, by choosing to use Shakespeare’s “As You like It”, she throws in a pun into the article. Richtel warns the education fraternity that, in as much as there is an advantage in transforming of the traditional classroom into a digital setting, this will come with grave consequences. Her article shows the manner in communication will be changed when students start using the social media platform to communicate in class. Additionally, she portrays the irony depicted in the decision by schools to lay off teachers to buy computers. In essence, Richtel’s article will provide useful information in the research by highlighting the poor methodology and lack of an evaluation system to test the efficacy of the system.