Teachers must adopt technology or risk becoming obsolete: city Chief Education Officer Lori Shorr

Left-right: Knight Foundation Program Director Donna Frisby-Greenwood, the city’s Chief Education Officer Lori Shorr, Philadelphia Works CEO Mark Edwards spoke on a panel about broadband adoption at the Bossone Research Center at Drexel University.

It’s no longer a question of whether or not to use technology in the classroom. That’s a given. Instead, it’s how, when and for what purpose.

That was the sentiment during the the broadband adoption panel at yesterday’s free day-long Educating in the Digital Age symposium hosted by the Urban Affairs Coalition, Comcast and Drexel University and sponsored by Pearson and the Philadelphia School District.

The City of Philadelphia’s Chief Education Officer Lori Shorr said that teachers had to realize that technology plays a crucial role in teaching today’s students.

“Technology is not a bell or a whistle,” Shorr said to us after the panel.

During the panel, Shorr stressed that with all the education choices out there, teachers have to adopt technology in their classroom or risk becoming obsolete. Students now have the ability to choose a classroom that’s using iPads or using video game development to learn algebra.

Shorr also pointed out the uptick of cyber charter enrollment, predicting cyber charter enrollment to amount to more than 11,000 students in the next five years. For context, the School District handles about 140,000 students.