Ed World Q&A

I get requests for insights into technology use from authors now and again. Sort of a pain in the patootie, but they are also a good opportunity to reflect. How would YOU answer these fairly generic questions about ed tech use?

How would you characterize the current use of electronics in classrooms?
Technology is currently being used in the classroom to do administrative tasks (attendance, grading, communications). Instructionally, I see it simply amplifying what teachers had been doing prior to technology arriving on the scene. If a teacher was constructivist, group oriented, liked learning stations, etc. the technology supports this environment very nicely. If teachers are stand and deliver, lecture and worksheet types, the lectures may now include a PowerPoint and the worksheets are easier to read since they are word processed. The transformative expectations of technology that many of us hoped for have not been realized for the most part.

What is the biggest change in terms of integrating technology and electronics that you’ve seen in the past five years?
Its use for administrative tasks has become mandatory for all teachers. Teachers are using the results of online testing immediately to create small groups for differentiated instruction and for buildings to create growth plans. Intra-district communication has become 90% electronic – primarily e-mail. The use of the web by parents continues to grow – both for accessing general school information and for obtaining specific information about their own children’s progress in real time. Teachers are using more web resources, including streaming video. There is an increased use of reading and math software to help reach students not meeting state standards.

What do you see as the current trend in electronics use?
As the tools of Web 2.0 become more well known by teachers, their increased use is the trend du jour. Classroom uses of social bookmarking sites, wikis, and blogs allow easy collaboration on projects as well as a means of publishing one’s work to a wider audience of parents and community – if not the world. Not needing to know anything about html programming is helping to make publishers (and pundits) of everyone. Face to face (F2F) instruction is increasingly being supplemented by teacher-created online resources and activities establishing a hybrid learning environment – and 24/7 learning opportunities.

What is needed to help make the use of electronic devices more routine in classrooms? Or do you think that is not a pressing need?
A solid infrastructure and good training are critical. I’ve always argued that if the technology is not adequate, reliable and secure, teachers will not use it. Schools spend far too little of their budget making sure that the infrastructure is rock solid and sufficient, skimping big time on technicians and maintenance. We also continue to do a far less than stellar job on training teachers to use technology. We’ve done OK having them master basic productivity tools, but we really need to move beyond the 3 hour class on creating a podcast to having the genesis of the training come from the content area and its best practices, not from the technology department. That is when staff development in technology will be powerful.

What do you think of the recent report from the U.S. Department of Education indicating that using educational software did not increase math and reading scores?
I need to read it more closely, but a study indicating there is no difference between regular instruction and computer assisted instruction tells us something. For kids who do not respond to traditional instruction, technology offers another, equally effective means of teaching them. Second, in our district, technology use has never been about raising student test scores, but about helping students do project-based learning that develops higher-order thinking, research and communication skills – not measured on standardized tests. I would predict, however, that as educators learn to use reading and math instructional software better and the software itself improves (becomes more videogame-like?) we will see better test scores when it is used overall.

What does the future hold in terms of technology use in classrooms? What trends do you see coming up?
My big prediction is that 1:1 computing will soon be affordable. When parents can purchase a $200 device that allows their kids to connect wirelessly to the rest of the world and then insist that schools allow kids to use these devices throughout the day (already being done to some degree with cell phones), the classroom will be radically changed. This will be the meteor that disrupts the slow evolutionary path technology has been on so far. Today adults tune out of unimportant meetings when they have wireless access on their laptops. Students will do the same – X 10. Teachers will need to radically modify their practices to increase engagement – or become irrelevant.

http://see.msfc.nasa.gov/sparkman/Images/Deep%20Impact.gif

This endeth my Saturday morning rumination... 

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

Yeah for more training! I am half of the technology department at my school, and I feel the need to constantly read and update my skills.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Kenn,

One of my favorite quotes, applicable to tech training, is from Lewis Carroll:

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

Feels that way to me almost everyday.

Doug