Response to In Higher Education, a Focus on Technology

Bill Gates once said about kindergarten through 5th graders, “the idea that you stick them in front of a computer is ludicrous.”  I could not agree more with this statement.  Children that young need to be reading books and writing stories, not playing around with technology.  Students must first learn the basics before giving them complex technology.  Now, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four nonprofit education organizations are donating millions of dollars towards technology in colleges.  Next year, they plan on donating towards technology in high schools.  My major concern is: so much money is going towards technology, but is money going towards training educators on this technology?  Teachers, as well as students, need to learn these new forms of technology.  When I first heard of hybrid classes I thought they were ridiculous.  A hybrid class is a college class, which is half online and half student-to-professor interactions.  I personally could never learn that way.  I prefer to actually attend class, listen to lectures and engage in educational interactions.  While a professor is teaching I always have so many questions to ask and I also believe that class discussions are helpful to my learning.  Research has shown that students' test scores and retained learning, measured later in the year from a hybrid class, were as high as or higher than those of a lecture class.  These results amazed me!  Because of hybrid classes' amazing results and increased productivity, hybrid classes are being expanded to more and more colleges every year.  I believe as long as hybrid classes are showing results, why not implement them.  However, as a college student, I have heard of students paying other students to take their hybrid classes for them.  Is there a way college's can instill a security measure to prevent this?  I am more curious about these hybrid classes. Unfortunately, hybrid classes aren’t offered for education majors.   I would have liked to try out teaching/learning from a hybrid class.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/technology/11online.html