Seven stupid mistakes teachers make with technology

stupid (adjective): given to unintelligent decisions or acts m-w.com

Stupid is as stupid does. Forrest Gump

Stupid is not my favorite word. It sounds mean and harsh and ugly. But after reading that according to Newsweek that 25% of employees visit porn sites from work, and that the adult video industry claims hits on porn sites are highest during the work day*, it was truly the only term that seems to fit this sort of human behavior. I don't have any overwhelming objections to pornography per se. But perusing it at work? That's stupid.

I use stupid under fairly constrained conditions. To me, a stupid act has a degree of willfulness about it and is serious. Making an error once is ignorance; making the same mistake multiple times is stupidity. Unfortunately, I see stupid acts and beliefs related to technology in schools all the time.

These would be my nominees for the most stupid things** a teacher can do related to technology...

1. Not backing up data. "You mean having two copies of my files on the hard drive doesn't count as a backup?" The first time a teacher loses his/her precious data my heart breaks. The second time, well, stupidity ought cause some suffering.

2. Treating a school computer like a home computer. Teachers who use a school computer to run a business, edit their kid's wedding videos, or send tasteless jokes to half of North America (including that fundamentalist English teacher down the hall) are being stupid. Teachers who take their computers home and let their kids hack on them are being stupid. Teachers who don't own a personal computer for personal business deserve to get into well-deserved trouble.

3. Not supervising computer-using students. It is really stupid to believe Internet filters will keep kids out of trouble on the Internet. For so many reasons. Even the slow kids who can't get around the school's filter, can still exploit that 10% of porn sites the filter won't catch if they choose to do so. They can still send cyberbullying e-mail - maybe even using your email address. Or they can just plain waste time.

4. Thinking online communication is ever private. Eventually everyone sends an embarrassing personal message to a listserv. I've heard of some tech directors who get their jollies reading salacious inter-staff e-mails. You school e-mails can be requested and must be produced if germane to any federal lawsuits. Even e-mails deleted from your computer still sit on servers somewhere - often for a very loooong time. Think you wiped out your browsing history? Don't bet that that is the only set of tracks you've left that show where you've been surfing. Your Facebook page will be looked at by the school board chair and your superintendent and principal know who the author of that "anonymous" blog is. Not assuming everyone can see what you send and do online is stupid.

5. Believing that one's teaching style need not change to take full advantage of technology. Using technology to simply add sounds and pictures to lectures is stupid. Smart technology use is about changing the roles of teacher and student. The computer-using student can now be the content expert; the teacher becomes the process expert asking questions like - where did you get that information, how do you know it's accurate; why is it important, how can you let others know what you discovered, and how can you tell if you did a good job? The world has changed and it is rank stupidity not to recognize it and change as well.

6. Ignoring the intrinsic interest of tech use in today's kids. Kids like technology. Not using it as a hook to motivate and interest them in their education is stupid.

7. Thinking technology will go away in schools. The expectation tha "This too shall pass" has worked for a lot of educational practices and theories. Madeline Hunter, Outcomes-Based Education, whole language, and yes, some day, NCLB all had their day in the sun before being pushed aside by the next silver bullet. (I think that metaphor was a bit confused. Sorry.) But it is stupid to think technology will go away in education. It isn't going away in banking, medicine, business, science, agriculture - anywhere else in society. Thinking "this too shall pass" about technology is pretty stupid.

That was fun. What would make YOUR list of the top stupid mistakes you've seen teachers make with technology?

Oh, I am not above making stupid mistakes as well. Maybe this posting was one of them...

* And you wondered what those strange noises were coming from the next cubicle.

** While surfing for porn at work might qualify as THE stupidist mistake a teacher could make with technology, those CIPA-required filters that only the kids know how to get around are keeping this act off my teachers' stupid list. And here I bet you thought CIPA was about protecting kids.

Stop and take a deep breath

Our school district projects budget cuts of about three million dollars next year. That's five percent across-the-board if the cuts were to be made uniformly (which is impossible). And our district is in GOOD financial condition compared to many across the state, nation and world.

But you know, I am almost looking forward to the cuts. Echoing Tim (Assort Stuff) Stahmer's great blog post from a couple days ago, 2009-10 just might the year we can stop, take a real deep breath, evaluate our programs, reflect, and re-prioritize our budgets. (I rather enjoy doing budgets, making transparency a priority as long time readers may remember.)

This email below was shared with me by Nick Glass from TeachingBooks with whom I was visiting at the SLJ Summit. It was sent in response to a sales inquiry for his excellent product. (Used with permission, product names deleted to protect the innocent, see my product endorsement policy).

All I can tell you is that we are INUNDATED with electronic teaching resources. This past year we have implemented ________, an online writing program; _______, a comprehensive curriculum for math, language arts, and science grades K-12; the ______ program which is helps secondary and adult ELL learners learn English; ______ which is an ELL program for younger learners; _____ at the high school level; _____ at the alternative high school; and a new standards-based electronic gradebook.

We are tapped out, maxed out, and stressed out. We have all of the technology we can manage (more than we can manage actually) and we have neither the funding nor the capacity to look at any more resources in the foreseeable future.

Could this have been written by the educators in your district? While we have not implemented curricular tools and programs at the level described above, our district has been pushing things at our teachers at a rapid pace: SmartBoards, math games, a new student information system/gradebook/parent portal, streaming digital video, a "common assessments" program, expectations of teacher created webpages, etc. All this on top of a new "professional learning community" approach to self-directed, evidence-based staff development. A new "strategic road map." Higher percentages of ELL, FRP, and SpEd students. Nastier state tests and passage rates required for graduation. Whew!

Maybe applying the techno-brakes a little in 09-10 might be a good thing. A hard look at our tech and library budgets is in order. As I myself preached in 1995:

As much as I hate sounding like a Republican*, I have to say more money is not always the answer to better services to staff and students. A good budget requires planning, prioritizing, and accountability. When those things are done, better programming is the result - even without an increase in funds. (Budgeting for Mean, Lean Times.)

Can budget reductions ever have positive outcomes?

* For you whipper-snappers, back in '95 the Republican party was considered not just socially, but fiscally conservative as well.

Is that a projector in your pocket...?

Check this out*:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/technology/personaltech/05pogue.html

That's right. A data projector that fits in your (shirt, not coat) pocket and connects to an iPod. Cool.

Now back when I was a little presenter growing up on the prairie, it took two men and a boy to carry the equipment needed for data projection. I remember humping:

My trusty MacClassic, B&W, with added video-out pigtail which connected to...

an LCD projection panel to be placed on...

an overhead projector, better when bright and portable. The room still needed to be pretty dark and image wasn't much sharper than the presenter, but there was still quite a WOW factor for the time.

I honestly believe I got my tech director job back in 1991 because I impressed the hiring committee with my really cuttin' edge HyperCard resume that I projected with a set up just like this. Sort of a proto-geek.

Speaking of equipment, the best backhanded compliment I ever received was from a very nice lady who gushed, "Just watching you set up the equipment was the best part of your presentation!"

Hard not to get a big head.

Off to the School Library Journal Summit in Fort Lauderdale where all the problems of the world I am sure will be solved. Cathy Nelson promises to stream some of the programs. My (literal) 15 minutes of fame will be "7 Audacious Statements about Fair Use and Copyright" as part of a panel.

Warm weather and old friends. Could be worse.

*Thanks to Tim's Assorted Stuff blog for this link.