[Edu-sig] re: Education Arcade

[Arthur]

>So my view is that simulations are good, but much better ...

My view is largely otherwise, but I suspect we can agree on some more
fundamental issues.  

The stakes involved are enormous - financial and cultural. According to my
simulation, those with interests in the outcome are quite actively
influencing this debate, and can be expected to do so more aggressively in
the future. It is not a subterranean plot. It is simply the way of the
world. And in this particular case the weight of those with a direct
interest in the outcome are very much on one side of the scale.  In other
debates, the circumstances are different and the influences more evenly
distributed.  

I would probably be considerably less strident if I thought the debate had a
reasonable chance of being conducted on an even playing field. And decided
on its merits. I do not.  According to my simulation, the fact that
educational spending, as a broad category, is second only to health care is
of considerable relevance.

I believe the merits of the Waldorfian view on technology in the K to 9
(let's say) classroom (and certainly those more moderate, but with leanings
in the Waldorfian direction) will quite likely be underrepresented (and
underfunded).  And I am a sucker for a lost cause.

Sounds very Leftist, probably. But, education has traditionally been, to a
reasonable extent, insulated from the marketplace. Some of us feel that
tradition or ideal is under siege in connection with the technology issue,
more and more. But that Left or Right categories actually don't apply.
 
Art