Can technology in schools build relationships?
Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 06:07AM My education guru, Larry Cuban, asks the question "Why is Schooling, After Adopting Computers, Yet to be Transformed?" One reason he gives is:
... teaching is a helping profession. Doctors and nurses, teachers, social workers, and therapists are helping professionals whose success is tied completely to those who come for their expertise: patients, students, clients. All patients, students, and clients enter into a relationship with these professionals that influence but do not determine the outcomes either in better health, learning, and personal growth. Professionals depend upon those who they help for their success–no doctor says I succeeded but the patient died. No teacher says that I taught well but the student didn’t learn. No therapist says that I listened well, gave superb advice but the client didn’t improve. Both need one another to reach goals they both seek. And it is the relationship between the professional and patient, student, and client that matters. Not net profits at the end of the fiscal year. Policymakers and high-tech companies eager to transform practice through new technologies ignore the essential fact that these professionals are not there to become rich or famous, they are there to help others.
As our district's 1:1 program gets its feet under it, now some weeks into the school year, I am asking if this expenditure of funds will lead to a transformation of education in our district. Will it be electronic worksheets and shared slide shows to accompany lectures and digital textbooks? Will it lead to to "personalization" through commercial drill-and-practice reading and math programs?
Or will the technology allow teachers to establish better communications and a better relationships with all students, understanding that learning, not teaching is at the heart of a truly transformed classroom. Will it bring students and teachers closer together - or push them further apart?
And how can one tell?
Reader Comments (3)
This article has been bothering me (in a good way) since my first read. With so many ways for teachers and students to communicate, why do I only get one or two communications per week although I have about 100 students I deal with each day? I know that they communicate with each other hundreds of times each week, and yet there is so little between students and teachers.
Unfortunately the communication I do receive is usually very short and very predictable - due dates, class times, grade requests. This is something I personally need to really think about, since it seems like there is no excuse for me or the students.
Hi Kenn,
Interesting. Are expecting communications via email when kids prefer texting perhaps? No idea. My own kids big on messaging either.
Doug
Hi Kenn,
Interesting. Are expecting communications via email when kids prefer texting perhaps? No idea. My own kids big on messaging either.
Doug