TECH & TE(A)CH

What are your thoughts on technology in the classroom? Is technology the panacea for American education? Or is technology the the downfall to the art of learning? Discuss YOUR thoughts.

54 years. In geologic time, that is nothing. In technology time, it is nearly an eternity. Much can happen to technology in 54 years. The UNIVA 1 is considered to be the first commercial computer and, with all its parts and pieces, would fill a large bedroom. One huge computer, by today’s standards—colossal. And this computer did not even have drop down menus our a mouse. Can you imagine?

This year a new exhibit around the computer opens in Albuquerque (the place where Paul Allen and Bill Gates started Microsoft in 1975, being close to other computer folks, later moving to Seattle, Washington in 1977).

In my lifetime, the computer existed as huge, behemoths sequestered in rooms where you would have to schedule time to use them. Then, and I remember it clearly, in 5th grade, my school added a computer class. Our computers had a hard drive capacity of 64K, which is funny when you consider that a photo taken by a camera usually has double that. We learned BASIC and played games. That was the curriculum. That was all there was to do with computers and education.

However, that has changed. The computer and subsequent technology is ubiquitous in the classroom and if not, it is seen as a weakness by the community. No other instrument has been accepted as readily as the computer. No other object has as much cache power to symbolize the rosy future for little kids than a computer; think of all of those district or school brochures that show 4 or 5 elementary students huddled around a computer, smiling. It took decades for the pencil to be accepted into the school as an appropriate tool, but the computer was there before people could say, "no".

Computers have shown their strength as an educational tool, and they do seem to have limitless capabilities. However, I would argue that computers sit in most classrooms collecting dust, used for basic internet research and word processing, two activities that do have their purpose, but could be achieved with computers many years old, and in the case of word processing, decades old.

Why do we insist on using up-to-date, expensive computers when they are not used as such? Is it because the computers are a status symbol or the classroom, the school, and even the community?

I am a teacher of English so word processing makes up the majority of my classroom computer use; and this is fine as it is a real world use.

Computers are great, but they cannot replace the human quality of great teaching in the classroom. They are not flexible and cannot adjust to the immediate needs of the student. To fear the computer and to not embrace it is putting your classroom and students at risk of being behind the times. Students understand vidcasts and like to be able to play and replay a video. Is the acquisition of knowledge inherently better solely through a text book?

Some great computer trends to consider for the coming school year
1. Web site with resources, handouts, and lessons so that students and families can always be up-to-date or used for review
2. Podcasts: audio instruction that can be played on a computer or mp3 player
3. Vidcasts: the visual equivalent of a podcast, stronger because kids like videos
4. Online parental (student) access to the student’s progress in each class, through the teacher’s grade book. Emailing of progress reports to parents (students) whenever the teacher decides.
5. Using the comment feature in Microsoft Word for peer feedback
6. Student web sites of their work and current learning paths—a portfolio
7. Blogs, You Tube, Teacher Tube
8. Web search (not new, but being used more)
9. Weekly “Notes from the Classroom” email or posting on a web site or blog
10. Co-learning with another class over a great distance such as peer feedback on stories with students in Africa.

Worst uses for computers
1. Interior classroom design—the computers just sit on desks in the back
2. Word processing if that is all for which the computers are used (in this case, a decade old grey computer would work)
3. Computerized report cards as the sole use
4. Flash games on the internet
5. Power Pointing your students to death
6. Students Power Pointing their final projects to death
7. Email as the sole reason the computer is turned on in the morning

I have an opinion on the topic and teaching and technology. However, what I want to do with this post is provide an open forum for you to leave your thoughts on technology in the classroom. Check back in a week and respond to the comments left by others. I consider it an opportunity for me to hear from others.

Here are some Points to Ponder:

• To what extent should technology be used?
• What about the discrepancy of technology in the have and have not schools?
• Can computer based curriculum replace teachers?
• What are the strengths or weaknesses of technology in the classroom?
• Are today's youth "programmed" differently then when you were in school?
• For what do you use technology in the classroom?
• For what do you NOT use technology in the classroom?
• How to get enough computers for consistent use by all of the students. Can you push technology as the panacea of education, but limit the use to three computers, where you have to plan months ahead of time?
• For computers and technology to be used effectively, they need to be accessible whenever the teachable moment happens, but there is never enough technology available, why?
• Teaching the teachers how to use the technology.

Comments

[Travis A. Wittwer]

@Glenn Loayza, I love your last statement in the previous comment: "Technology is not going away. The question to ask is 'How can we use it so that it works for us'?"

I think this is a reasonable perspective and puts the power in the hands of the user rather than the user being used by the technology, which many fear.

[Glenn Loayza]

Travis, you bring up some great questions to ponder. Personally, I am a complete advocate for using technology in the classroom. It isn't the pancea. It is a tool just like all of the other tools that teachers have at their disposal. When used by trained teachers and used properly, it can engage students and improve quality of work. I have experienced this first hand as a 'Gates Grant' recipient. As I integrated technology throughout the curriculum, I noticed that students were more thoughtful about their work when they knew it was going to be displayed publicly on the web. They also put more time and effot into their work when they could use multimedia tools, eg. web page design, windows movie making, podcasting ,etc. I would often have students ask to return to my class during lunch or after school. I did not get this same result when we completed traditional paper and pencil assignments. Yes, it is a huge motivation for many, not all.

In terms of your statement on whether students are programmed differently then when I was in school. I would definitely say, Yes! The students of this generation are referred to as 'digital natives', a term coined by Marc Prensky. This referes to the generation that has been raised in the digital revolution, computers, cell phones, MP3's etc. I am not a digital native. I am considered to be a 'digital immigrant'. One who was raised without technology.

Because of the influx of technology in students lives, educators at MIT are looking at game oriented programs that mimic what the mind does to help students achieve academically. Their theory is that the mind works like a video game - multitasking with multi-level connections, random rather than linear. Students are accustomed to this and this is why they perform so well on video games. Sit down with any 8-10 year old. This is the one place in their lives where they perform better then their parents. It is an interesting theory. Not the complete answer, but an interesting idea for us to consider. Technology is not going away. The question to ask is 'How can we use it so that it works for us'?

[Benjamin]

For those who question the effectiveness of using technology in the classroom to improve student achievement, the research is rather clear. Check out this research study: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/17/92/9f.pdf

It should be no surprise that when technology is used to promote higher level thinking skills, student achievement improves. Another interesting note is that when teachers are trained to use the technology, students of those teachers perform 15 months ahead of their peers. It is also important to note the negatives. When technology is used to drill students on low level functions, there is no advantage and students may actually perform more poorly. To me the two important points of this meta-analysis are that when used properly, student achievement is significantly better with technology, and that when teachers are trained appropriately, their students perform significantly better than their peers.

Another important finding centers on student attitudes toward technology. If it's absent from our classrooms, or underutilized, it's not hard to imagine another generation of Americas raised with a phobia about computers. That certainly is not in our best interests.

[Travis]

@Annette, you bring up a point that not many thought about--is the infrastructure or system or culture (or even the students and parents) ready for an increase in technology. Thanks for bringing your view to the discussion. I wil have to think more on this.

[Annette Weeks]

I am both excited and hesitant at the thought of laptops for classroom use.

My husband is a business education teacher at the same school I teach at and every year has a handful of flagerant cheating incidents. The administration at our school isn't as swift to deal with these abuses as we would like and that bothers me.

Until we can get a good handle on how to deal with this cheating issue, I'm not ready to take the leap. I would love to have the access to that many computers with internet access, as the sky would be the limit for what I could use for information in my classroom, but our school isn't ready to deal with everything that comes with it.

Also, our IS dept. isn't big enough to deal with that big of an increase in computer numbers.

[Travis]

@Annette, having a director with insight and future sight like that is wonderful.

[Annette Weeks]

Wow - this is all very interesting. I struggle with technology on a daily basis and not necessarily because of the restrictions placed on me by my school district, but because of the restrictions that many of the parents place on their children. We have many parents who refuse to grant interent access to their students when they first come to the high school. This is based on religious beliefs that it is too worldly (yet many of these students have higher tech phones and ipods than I or my own children do).

While this is a hurdle that we are usually able to get over in the first few months of high school with these students it is a hurdle none the less and it makes for a challenge as it is a real job convincing these parents that we will monitor their children and what they are doing on the internet. I have begun a website of my own and one of my goals with that website is to use it as a place to post safe website links for reasearch projects so that I can give parents 1 more reassurance that I am doing everything I can to keep their children safe.

My website has been an interesting topic of conversation also as these families, about 25%, don't have internet access at home. However, many of the parents have access through their jobs and so they do receive e-mails there and seem to be checking the site from work. It has not been useful to the students of these families at though, as they do not have access. I have computers in my room that they use to check the site for assignments when they have been abesent.

My director is playing with the idea of buying classroom sets of laptops in liu of textbooks. Now there is food for thought....

[Travis]

I really like the point that Tom makes: what is equal is not always fair. Teachers, being that they are human and like gadgets, would certainly say "yes" to a question of would you like computers in your room. However, as Tom points out, few would actually use the computers to their fullest. So is it fair to the teacher that would use the technology in a way that is both innovative and would benefit children to not have more computers? I taught in one school where nearly every teacher had 4 computers. Most teachers did not use them on a daily basis, nor were the computers central to the learning, a social tool for education. The computers were used on occasion for word processing or doing a PowerPoint. But not daily.

I agree with Tom's statement of needing a critical number of machines to make the tools useful, 8 is about right as a minimum (student groups of 4, or some variation thereof).

If I had 8 computers, a projector, and a document camera (and the freedom to use whatever social online tool I wished so long as it was appropriate), tech would be a day in and day out process for my classroom. And I am an English teacher. We love paper and pencil. Drafts and crossing things out.

[Tom White]

After reading another great post, I have to say one thing about computers in education: you have to have a critical number in your room in order to actually use them as an effective tool. This was a reality that the Gates Foundation accepted ten years ago when they began the TLP computer grants. They realized that doling out computers in an equitable manner (one for you, one for you, etc.) didn't and wouldn't work. This was a great way to improve "classroom interier design" but a lousy way to improve teaching practices. I think it takes seven or eight healthy machines in order for the classroom to actually use them as effective tools. Obviously, this isn't feasible or sustainable in most districts. But here's the thing: It doesn't have to be. In any given school, you're going to have teachers who love technology and have creative and effective ways to use it. And they will have colleagues down the hall who can barely read their email. So let those teachers teach without computers, and give the fancy machines to the teachers who are willing and able to use them. This has been going on in my district for the last five years and there is a surprising lack of controversy. There will always be plenty of wonderful lessons taught by effective teachers that don't require the use of technology. But it's up to us to ensure that students get a "balance diet" of techie and non-techies as they move through our schools.

[Gunnar]

Many of the questions and comments originaly posted I have considered almost daily. I mostly teach 8th grade math in a regular education classroom with a wide range of skills. I find that technology in my classroom (interactive white board, remote tablet, graphing calculators, and two stand-alone computers) have increased the engagement and excitement of students in the learning process.

I am a strong believer that these tools can only be used effectively by a trained and facilitating educator of these tools. The effectiveness of technology will only be successful as a support and diversifying forum for our students.

Unfortunately I continue to ineffectively use my two computers in a way that can support fundamental skills of my intensive or strategic learners. One of my goals this years is to implement a plan that will provide individual learning opportunities to those that struggle with number sence and basic opperation in math. Without these skills, many of the students come unequiped with the tools to attack and solve problems presented in our curriculum.

It is our responsibility to provide learning opportunities through and with technology to our students. Yes, technology is rapidly changing and the available technology to our students post K-12 will be vastly advanced. The more opportunities we provide them the more adaptable they become and the more equiped to succede in careers and society.