"Wi-Fi in schools is an unprecedented and unethical experiment involving
the continuous radiation of children with microwave level frequencies, a
possible cancer risk according to the WHO, that is considered by our
government to be harmful to children, and it is happening without the consent of children, parents and school staff, including pregnant women who are more vulnerable...
Do we as teachers and school boards have the right to expose children, hoping that the health risks are inconsequential?"
A Letter To
The Ministry Of Education
By Patrick Chun,
Engineer & Parent
"About technology in education,
we need to think carefully about simply buying the latest hardware such
as tablets, smart boards, etc. and claiming that our schools are
hi-tech. It may be nice to be able to recite how many i-whatever we
have in our schools, but simply having more toys in schools will only
perpetuate the already foolish use of technologies in our society in
many cases.
We may all have
the tendency to going to a vendor's demo night and be dazzled by the
glitz, but, if experience is any indication, the benefits of the
latest-and-greatest gadgets frequently are not as great as using the
fund for other more meaningful, albeit low-tech, initiatives.
Don't get me
wrong, I am not techno-phobic (UBC engineering 1984). If we are going
to use technology, many times very modest equipment nowadays are already
more than adequate for all of the truly meaningful educational
purposes.
It is the educational software that matters, not the hardware.
We
need to wean ourselves from a "Rolls-Royce" mentality in terms of
hardware purchases, and we need to focus on using the money to build a
province-wide educational software repository particularly addressing
the needs of our BC kids. This is the way to gain efficiency and
scalability in education. It also addresses the flexible individual
learning initiative.
On
another note, we may want to be more vigilant about using unproven
technologies such as wireless Internet routers within schools. Like
DDT, we don't want to find out its issue too late."
The author: Mr.
Patrick Chun, professional engineer, computer programmer, educator, and
entrepreneur, graduated from the University of British Columbia, Canada
in Engineering with 1st class Honours, and subsequently went on for
graduate studies at McGill University, Canada, and the University of
California, USA in Computer Engineering.
Patrick had
extensive high-technology development experiences on electronic
communication systems, satellite observations, and multimedia designs
across North America, as well as the design of users’ training and
education for these complex systems. He was a volunteering
engineer for the "Scientists in School" project in Canada where
experienced scientists, doctors, engineers would visit high schools to
give lectures about the fascinating world of science and technologies.
Email: pchun@greenwood.ca
