 “I don’t see that using technology has made any difference in how well my students perform.” This comment was made recently during a workshop I was conducting for technology planning teams. Heads were nodding in agreement all around the room. It seemed to be one of those teachable moments, so we stopped what we were doing to discuss this comment. I asked for examples of the kinds of technology-supported instruction the participants offered their students. Several responded:
• “After they finish their other work, I let students play education games on the computer.”
• “My students made a 5-slide PowerPoint show for their science fair project using a template I made for them.”
• “Students read a book and then take a quiz online.”
• “We go to the computer lab and I let them look for websites; but usually by the time they find something, our lab time is over.”
These comments are typical of the ways many teachers bring technology to their students. Nothing is inherently wrong with any of these activities as a starting point; however, in far too many instances, this is as far as a teacher is willing to go. If you consider each example carefully, you can see that the teacher has taken something s/he would have done anyway and simply automated it. For example, supplemental educational games have been used as time-fillers for decades. Now, instead of playing a board game, students play online. Science fair projects have moved from poster boards to PowerPoint slides, but the information is still presented in a linear fashion. Reading quizzes are taken online rather than on paper, but the comprehension-level questions haven’t changed. Students who once might have spent their library time trying to find just the right print material, now do the same thing using a search engine instead. The bottom line is that none of these activities is enhanced or made better through the use of technology. Doing the same old thing a little faster or a little more efficiently isn’t going to change academic outcomes.
 If we were still preparing students to function in a society where basic content literacy, getting to work on time, and following directions were usually enough to ensure successful adult lives, we might be able to settle for automation of instructional tasks. But the demands that will be placed on our students when they enter the workplace are much greater. Along with basic academic knowledge, our students must now be prepared to become lifelong learners who can manage large quantities of information, solve problems, think critically, work in teams, and use technology effectively. Technology tools can help teachers design activities that prepare students to deal with expanded workplace demands, but only if those teachers are willing to become more advanced technology users themselves and implement new teaching strategies. Lessons
Learned: Factors Influencing the Effective Use of Technology
for Teaching and Learning, a report published by the Southeast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium, states, “Effective use of technology requires changes in teaching; in turn, the adoption of a new teaching strategy can be a catalyst for technology integration.”
Teachers go through several stages of use before they are fully ready to integrate the use of technology as a teaching tool. [They] need specific professional development to move into the later stages, where increased student performance can be attributed to technology use. However, even with this training, additional factors can impede teachers in making effective use of technology in their classrooms. The lack of follow-up for training and on-going support are issues; so is the fact that most teachers view technology quite differently than their students.
One of the impediments to effective technology integration
is the fact that most of the teachers in classrooms today did
not grow up as technology users themselves. In 2001, consultant
and author Marc Prensky coined the terms digital
immigrant and digital native. If you are more
than 30 years old, or had little opportunity to use technologies
such as personal computers during your own childhood, you are
a digital immigrant. You probably remember when cell phones
were an oddity, when computer diskettes were 5.25" floppies,
and when VHS tapes were high-end video technology.
Today’s students are digital natives. They come to us with very different technology-related experiences, attitudes, and expectations than we had growing up because they were born into the digital age; they don’t know anything different. Many of them have never seen a telephone with a dial, a cash register without scanning capability, or a manual adding machine. Recent surveys show that these children spend more time using the Internet than they do watching television, and that the age group experiencing the greatest increase in time spent online consists of 2- to 5-year-olds! Respondents also report that the place where they have the least opportunity to use technology is at school. In some cases this may be due in part to limited access; however, even in well-equipped schools technology use is often limited.
Even when students have adequate access to technology tools, teachers often insist that they draft an essay by hand before allowing them to use a word processor. Or students sit down at Internet-connected computers and then are forbidden to use the systems during the bulk of the lesson in an effort to ensure they are on-task. This tendency of digital immigrants to restrict students’ use of technology, even when access is not an issue, is a major barrier to effective integration of technology in classrooms.
Technology is no longer an optional part of life outside the classroom and should not be optional inside the classroom either. Students in the 21st century need daily equitable access to technology tools in their school environment, just as they have access to other staples for learning. For students to make best use of the technology, teachers must be willing to think beyond their own experiences as students and to realize that instructional strategies designed 100 years ago to teach students to be good assembly-line workers are not appropriate in today’s classrooms.
Here are some suggestions:
Learn everything you can about 21st-century skills. A number of websites address 21st-century skills and their impact on education. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) and the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory’s enGauge (www.ncrel.org/engauge) websites, which feature reports, resources, and tools for teachers, are two good places to start.
Don’t settle for basic personal proficiency. Become a lifelong learner yourself. Basic skills will help you automate; learning more advanced technology skills will help you see potential you didn’t know existed. For example, simple PowerPoint slides are equivalent to overhead transparencies. More advanced features including hyperlinks, movies, or online collaboration capabilities open all sorts of possibilities for more effective classroom use of this program.
Review sample lessons for ideas. It’s often helpful to look at examples of how other teachers are incorporating technology use into classroom instruction that supports 21st-century learning skills. Some websites that feature lessons and projects of this type include ThinkQuest (www.thinkquest.org/) and Marco Polo Teacher Resources (www.marcopoloeducation.org/teacher/teacher _index.aspx).
Turn to digital natives for ideas. If you are uncomfortable about asking your own students to suggest new or better ways to design classroom projects, approach other digital natives you know. Talk to your own children, nieces and nephews, or neighbors. Ask them to describe projects that would be interesting and relevant to them and how technology could be used to enhance the learning experience from their point of view. Not only will they be happy to share their thoughts, but many will also be willing to show you how to use the technologies they describe.
A major shift in thinking takes time. Begin slowly and build your repertoire of new skills and strategies. The problem doesn’t lie in incremental change; the problem lies in little or no change at all.
By Susan Brooks-Young
Susan Brooks-Young spent 23 years as a teacher and administrator.
She now works as a professional consultant and author. This article is an
excerpt from her forthcoming book, Technology Perspectives: Critical Leadership Issues for School Administrators (Corwin
Press). |
