Dive Brief:
- Forbes spoke with John Jong-Hyun Kim, a senior lecturer and William Henry Bloomberg fellow at Harvard Business School, about the lack of technology integration in America's K-12 schools.
- Kim, who recently co-authored "Technology Innovations in K-12 Education," discusses his surprise that schools have been so slow in using technology beyond the occasional iPad or computer session.
- Kim says technology has many benefits in schools, but it can be most transformational when used for personalization, access, and productivity.
Dive Insight:
On the personalization front, Kim says technology can help classrooms teach and match the needs of the individual child. “Rather than having a classroom where you have a teacher in front of 25 students all day long, this essentially says, Let’s figure out what students need and how they learn best, and then let’s offer them an individualized approach,” Kim told Forbes. Kim is a fan of the program School of One, which is currently being piloted by the New York Department of Education. Under the program, students are given daily personalized plan tasks to complete at various learning centers.
In terms of access, Kim is thinking about MOOCs. Currently, MOOCs lack data showing whether users actually finish the videos or learn from the programs. To bypass this issue, Kim believes the next iteration of MOOCs need to be more interactive.
Finally, he addresses productivity — the more behind-the-scenes transformation of tech. Here, he discusses how technology can help teachers and administrators manage massive amounts of data and paperwork, ultimately giving them more time to focus on students.
