By Mark
I am lucky enough to teach half of my work day in a program which provides my 45 English 9 students each with desktop computer for their using during my class time. We do research, write compositions, use tech toys like prezi and PowerPoint and animoto (and blogs), and we aim squarely for the kind of discerning 21st century multiliteracy that is all the rage, and supposedly the necessity.
I project my computer screen to help facilitate instruction from bell to bell. I use my doc cam and my smartboard. I keep my students informed on my class website where I post video clips, youtube links, prezi lectures, and assignment resources.
I tell myself that all this makes my life easier. I know that I'm lucky, of course, and I am not complaining, but I wonder about the role and place of technology in education. And I wonder if maybe I'm faced with too much of a good thing.
There was time the bulb burned out on my LCD projector. And the time the internet went down when my kids were doing hefty research. And the kids first forgetting their floppy disks, then their jump drives and now their passwords to Googledocs or turnitin.com. Those were the moments when I realized how dependent I had become–there was no plan B when the entire lesson was to be presented on a prezi embedded in my blog, which I was unable to show becuase the internet had gone wacky or my projector bulb decided to blow. I had to punt, and we still made progress toward the learning goals, though not in the same way I perhaps had intended.
Sure, technology makes my life–and my students' lives–easier. I'm certain that some forms of technology have helped me be a better teacher. When kids type their essays, submit them to turnitin.com, and I type my feedback in response, the turnaround is exponentially faster, the feedback more immediate, and thus, the learning more efficient. But I wonder.
I see iPod touches and iPads popping up in classroom sets here and there. I hear about apps for this and that. And for some reason, it all makes me wonder how much of a positive impact on student learning can actually be attributed to an increased use of technology in the classroom. Would I be as effective a teacher without the technology bells and whistles? Was I as effective ten years ago with nothing but a chalkboard and an overhead to show transparencies? (I think I was.)
The other night I saw the clip below about a (very expensive) private K-12 in California–square in the middle of the Silicon Valley–which has gone tech-less at K-8 and uses technology sparingly in high school.
Take a moment to watch the clip–and get past the high tuition and the laughable statement about how this school's 99% graduation rate "proves" that old-fashioned teaching is as effective as ever (despite the kids' parents shelling out a $24,000 per year investment to get the kid into that high school…which obviously has no influence on the graduation rate). Consider the message about technology use in schools–and in particular, consider what the one young man says about imagination versus Google. Excuse the commercials (if there are any).
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What do you think? What should be our priorities when it comes to technology in the classroom? Are we just suckers like the people who line up at the Apple store at midnight when the new iPad is about to hit the shelves? Considering how prone education is to leaping from one fad to another…is it really worth the investment for schools to jump on ed-tech fads?
I like to become a englishphone
“Technology is a tool. It should be used as a tool for learning rather than soley a way to show what was learned (word-processing, presentations, photos).”
That is mainly my concern. Other than scholarly internet research, I struggle to find ways to incorporate technology (from the student side) in ways other than “do a cool presentation.”
TECHnology is nothing without great TEACHing. Technology is a tool. At one point, the lowly overhead projector would have been considered a great piece of technology (my appologies to those of you who are using overheads–I had stained hands for 10 years of my career).
What I have seen every district and every school do incorrectly with technology is (1) get it, and get it fast, (2) use it to show that the schools are up-to-date as if slick computers mean high-functioning schools, and (3) fail to provide any form of instruction for teachers on how to effectively use the technology.
This is why we have slick computer labs for word processing.
But how to integrate the technology into the instruction is key. Technology is a tool. It should be used as a tool for learning rather than soley a way to show what was learned (word-processing, presentations, photos).
I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a few years, Mark. thanks for saving me the trouble!
Sometimes I wonder how over-teched we’ve become and whether we need to be. I find with third graders – who were born well after most of us lost interest in Power Point – that technology doesn’t really compel them the way we think it should. Their lives are already so saturated with screens that paper and pencils are practically a novelty.
I wonder. That is a good question. I’m a slave to my technology. I don’t teach with the Teacher’s Guide open but sometimes I’d dependent on my next SmartNotebook slide to guide my instruction.
That being said, my interpersonal interactions give me the greatest insight into student understanding. I also think these interactions have the greatest impact on student learning. I can remember very little from an online course I took but I remember the words of teachers and professors (especially when they were in response to my wonderings).
One other thought in support of technology- I’m much more effective at tracking student growth than ever before. Microsoft’s OneNote is my new favorite way to keep relevant information available.
I suppose there is no going back but I need to continually remind myself that my job isn’t to teach subjects it is to teach people. Teaching people takes a connection. I haven’t found that connection on Facebook or through an iPad.