This too shall pass - I don't think so

 

I am constantly amazed by educators who think they can ignore, outlive, avoid, or defeat any efforts in their schools to improve education using technology. In the schools where I've worked, classrooms have had at least one computer for twenty-five years or more. Yet, their daily use with kids (not just for professional productivity) seems more an anomaly than a regular, unremarkable practice.

Do some educators still believe that technology in education is a passing whimsy?

As a classroom teacher and building librarian, I shuddered when the principal, superintendent, or curriculum director would attend a conference because it always seemed they would return with the latest magic educational bullet that would "fix" education. Back in the day, it was Madeline Hunter, career education, and multi-cultural gender-fair training. Today it's Response to Intervention, cultural proficiency, Danielson's Framework, and formative assessment. Throw in a little Webb's Depth of Knowledge, SAMR, formative assessment, PBIS, data-driven decision-making, et al, and it's little wonder today's classroom teacher reacts to change much the same way I did - sit quietly at the back of the room during the in-service, arms crossed, plotting how to keep teaching in the same way but just use the new terminologies of the educational "cure du jour." And thinking "This too shall pass."

While understandable, this survival strategy may no longer be successful. Culturally, technology is not a passing fashion. Online banking, CAT scans, and CAD/CAM have been and will be with us for quite some time. While it usually trails the rest of society, education does reflect it. Like it or not, kids and families will expect all teachers to use technology to improve learning opportunities. We are educating a generation of students who have learning styles, shaped by home technology use, unlike any generation we've seen before. These are kids who demand engagement and will not learn well in any environment where passivity is the expected behavior. And finally, this is the first generation of students in which every single one of them needs a high skill and knowledge set and the dispositions that will allow that learning to be put to good use. Culture, socio-ecomic level, English language proficiency will not and cannot be an excuse for school not to teach every kid that shows up. 

So here's the deal. As an educator I have a limited amount of time and energy to devote to improving my professional practice. Why not think strategically and use it to learn those practices that won't pass, that will serve me well for the remainder of my career?

Comments

[Nathan Mielke]

What disappointed me this summer were friends and former colleagues in schools going 1:1 using the New Jersey story of a school ending 1:1 as a reason why "this too will pass." That was simply a narrative in horrible technology management and rollout.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Nathan,

I had stories about the LAUSD 1:1 Fail "shared" with me quite a few times as well. As you say, these should be used as cautionary tales of how NOT to implement technologies in schools, not as a conclusion that technology should not be used.

Doug

[Bill Storm]

While some of the terms you use will surely go out of fashion, there is a group of them that, taken as an instructional whole, indicate the direction we desperately need to go. "1:1 initiatives," "Response to Intervention," "Formative Assessment," and (in its healthiest iteration) "Data-driven decision-making" all point to the need to make certain every single learner learns using all the tools we can bring to bear on each moment. "Sink or swim," the "bell-curve," "I teach to islands," "teaching language is not my job," "I can't teach past the pain in their lives" are all admissions of schooling failure that has characterized the worst of public education, bringing traditional schooling practices to (past?) the brink of complete irrelevance.

We can't afford to let human potential leave grade 12 undeveloped, yet we do it every single year. Before dismissing a strategic reform because of its catchy name, it will help us to reflect on our own pet catchy phrases that keep us comfortable in our personal and collective mediocrity. And by "us" I mean all of us: politicians, parents, teachers, taxpayers.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Bill,

I agree completely that the intention of the magic bullets is good and need is great for the "cures" in circulation today. (Many t echo John Dewey's recommendations 100 years ago.)

I guess my biggest complaint here is not that we are trying reform, but that it seems to be short-lived, acronym-driven, and disorganized - with teachers being hit by so many programs at one time. Some of this stems from district leaders getting vested in different efforts without coordinating their programs with those of others (tech vs curriculum vs PD vs ... ). I also wonder if some of these efforts are more driven by ego on the part of their creators than on school reform. But maybe that's just my cynical side or sour grapes that I've never come up with the catch phrase that demands a high consultant fee ;-)

Thanks for the POV on this, Bill. I always respect your ideas.

Doug