Ed Tech in Moderation
From Eduwiki
YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER DIDN’T HAVE AN iPHONE Think of the best teacher you ever had. Now tell me what technology they used in their classroom that made you remember them so fondly. Filmstrips? Overheads? VCR tapes? I think not. You remember that teacher because they connected with your life, or maybe they spun marvelous stories, or perhaps they demystified a part of the world you didn’t understand. In short, they inspired you. And they did it because of who they were, and how they taught, not because of technology. As Clark stated in 1983, “It is what the teacher does – the teaching – that influences learning.”
COMPUTER + STUDENT ≠ LEARNING We have all read Clark and the studies of many others who disprove the link between technology and learning. On p.448 Clark proclaims that “the positive effect of media more or less disappears when the same instructor produces all treatments” (C. Kulik, Kulik & Cohen 1980). And other positive effects of new media can often traced to a “novelty factor" which is erased over time. Bottom line, the teacher makes the difference, not the technology.
In Teachers and Machines, Cuban remind us that “the lack of flexibility in most technologies and their inability to “fit the rigors of the classroom.” In other words, that cool website on cellular biology does no good if the DSL is down in your building during 2nd period. He goes on to say that “since early decades of this century technological innovation has resulted in only limited changes in teacher practices, with little or no evidence that the use of technology has made instruction more efficient.” Am I to believe that in this new century the trend of the past 100 years will suddenly be reversed? Will a tsunami of tech savvy, highly trained teachers descend upon our school systems and improve student achievement with their magic laptops? I think not.
And in the end, evaluation of technology’s impact on learning I most likely an incalculable factor anyway. In his 1994 writing, Jonassen beautifully applies the chaos theory to learning when he reminds us that it is “impossible to know what components of a learning system (medium, attributes, activities, learner, environment) effect learning in what ways.” So let’s skip the research studies and get to the good stuff.
BUT ALL WE NEED IS MORE TRAINING! As well all know, teachers have their hands full, without requiring them to become technology wizards. Between grading, lesson planning, classroom management, standardized tests and jumping through credentialing “hoops,” can we honestly expect teachers to train themselves to properly use this new media? Even worse, the technology is constantly evolving, meaning that once a teacher masters a piece of software, an updated version may have already replaced it. Or that website that worked so well for your lesson last year? Yeah, it’s been taken down. Expecting an already floundering school system to cough up enough money for the proper support of teacher’s using technology is laughable. It is up to the teachers themselves. How much free time and energy at the end of a work day are you going to devote to finding that great website, or restructuring a tried and true lesson to be “tech savvy?” As the other group said, I’d rather be at the bar.
BUT IT’S FANCY LOOKING! You see, just because you connect to the web, or use a piece of software that adds bells and whistles to your lesson, learning does not improve as a direct result. How about a teacher that spends 80% of his or her class time teaching students iMovie, but only 20% delivering the historical content needed to make a good movie? Content often suffers at the hands of a tech savvy deliver method. In fact “assigning too much influence to media can lead to the design and development of sloppy, ineffective instructional materials that are accepted by technologists and use simply because they utilize interactive video or other “high status” delivery media (Ross 1994)."
THE COACH AND THE CLASS: A PARABLE A computer, by definition, places a barrier between the student and the teacher. The connection I spoke of in the first paragraph is broken. A plastic box of chips and wires has divided student and instructor. I can guarantee you won’t pick your first technology (or media) teacher as your favorite teacher. At worst, technology can serve as the VCR of olden days. We all remember that basketball coach turned teacher who popped in a video about the Civil War or the Pythagorean Theorem and went to sleep at his desk. So it is with the web, or iMovie, or internet scavenger hunts. The teacher has a free pass to disconnect with his or her students, and let the media “teach them.“
“I LUV U” or “24/7 PARENT HEADACHES” Just because tech speeds our ability to communicate, it doesn’t deepen our communication or connection with material. When was the last time you had a “heart to heart” over email or IM? Even worse, parents have 24/7 access to teachers thanks to email on online grade. Yes, Mrs. Johnson’ email about my poor job grading Timmy’s science project just ruined my weekend. Thanks a lot, “instant communication.”
DISTRACTIONS or "WAIT, JUST LET ME CHECK MY EMAIL REAL QUICK" As for increased efficiency, much time and effort must be devoted to learning new technologies, time that takes away from lesson planning, student communication and evaluation. Not to mention that distractions like Facebook, MySpace, email and IM are a detriment to learning. Let’s be honest, what do you do first when you sit down at a computer? Start reading or writing that paper, or do you check your email and update your Facebook page? And you expect a student to be more disciplined than you at the computer screen? C’mon! Just by logging on, easily an hour is lost to online distractions.
GREAT TEACHERS ARE NOT PROGRAMMED I think we can all agree with Jonassen that “people do not learn from media.” People learn by thinking. Learning is an active, constructive, cognitive and social process (Jonassen 1994). Perhaps technology can be enabling tools in that process, but it is by no means is it a “magic bullet.” Teaching is an art that takes years of practice and patience to develop. You remember your favorite teacher because of the magic and mastery he or she brought to the classroom. Let us not forget that talent, that connection, that humanity that great teachers achieve. It cannot be programmed.
