During my observation of middle school classes last semester, I had the opportunity to see how technology is used in 2009. Prior to this field observation, it had been a long time since I had ventured into a K-12 school. In one of the classes I observed, the teacher spent almost 10 minutes of precious class time trying to re-arrange furniture so that his Smart Board would project for all students to see. In another classroom, students were so excited that today was the day that they were going to use laptops. I was surprised by the excitement that students demonstrated towards the laptops, but then again this was a CPS school in a low-income neighborhood in which most of the families do not have computers at home. I wonder what the reaction would be if I was in a wealthy neighborhood observing students that have numerous computers in their household.
As a future math teacher, I understand the importance and value of technology in the classroom. And I desire to use technology that will allow me to reach my students and increase their excitement for a subject that is often thought of with so much negativity and fear. On the other hand, I am also concerned about the overuse and inappropriate use of technology in the classroom. The challenge is to find the right balance that works to improve the skills of our students.
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I agree that one of the most compelling reasons for computers in the classroom is the student excitement about using them. I think you have identified two contradictory pulls of technology in the classroom -- I will look forward to reading how you see striking the right balance.
ReplyDeletejd
I agree that if one is not careful, one can succumb to the pressure to be a "human doing" rather than a "human being." Building upon one of your points, I believe that teachers have a responsibility to help carve out time for students to be creative, which means, they need time to browse, time to messy, time to make mistakes and correct them. With this huge emphasis on standardized testing and the resultant teaching to the test, it is unfortunate that a lot of the time for being creative is falling by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, teachnology is interesting enough for young people that they will take it upon themselves to browse the Internet (as one example) and allow the connections of thought to "happen" as they do so. I can relate this to browsing bookshelves of books, reading titles and making connections, opening books and looking inside to see what cool things await one's investigation should one decide to spend more time. On the Internet, this would be like browsing a web site and exploring various links.
I agree that educators must keep a watchful eye on how they use technology and what technological tool they use. Appropriate use of technology is just as important as the integration of technology in a curriculum or lesson. I guess what we should keep focusing on is that we need to use technology to enhance learning instead of just using it to use it if our aim is to promote information and technological literacy.
ReplyDeleteThe balance of technology use along with other forms of teaching is so important and also so undefined. The balance is not a clear cut answer and is not even the same for every teacher or even for every lesson. Where I have a problem is the when "the powers that be" have a push for technology, simply for the sake of using technology. This seems to happen so that a statement can be made about the use of technology within a specific school or district, but the what the technology was used for and the benefits of its use are not always considered or addressed. Using technology for the sake of using technology can often become counter productive. I have seen this done in various situations in which it seems that there was a 'dog and pony show' simply for the sake of saying it was done or the true meaning of the lesson was lost because amidst the technology, but the attitude seems to be at least technology was used.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you've uncovered a real problem with how technology is being used, or more appropriately, misused, in too many classrooms today. The 'precious' time spend rearranging the chairs for use of the SmartBoard is a great example. We have become so awe struck with certain forms of technology that we believe that they must be used, and in every situation if we're to properly teach our students. Has the means now become more important the the ends?
ReplyDeleteWhat if we were to first examine what it is that we want our students to learn. Then we could move on to which technology is best suited to effectively aid our attainment of that goal. I'd wager to guess that no one single technology, no matter how 'cool' it may be, will end up the best choice in every situation.