It started with a tweet.
At the recent GAFE summit I attended in Auckland, the pencil metaphor for adoption of technology came up (from @eduwells)
The smug teacher in me laughed and felt superior with my implementation of technology in the classroom and that was it until the following tweet turned up in my news feed.
@JoHallNZ @iCoder1978 @EduWells Ok I'm going to say: I don't like this model. Respectful practice? (I know you re-drew Richard not original)
Philippa made me think, what may be wrong with this model? Is it inclusive and supportive my essentially shaming those teachers who have not embraced technology? Is this constructive? How can I help? Why do people hold these positions? So I sat down with teachers at my school who are deemed 'hangers on' or 'ferrules' or 'erasers' and had a conversation.
Recently educators have been enthusiastically questioning educational technology, but being “for” or “against” technology is a rather simplistic way at looking at the debate. Why is it that every few years education has a bright idea that, for whatever reason, doesn't light things up the way it might have.
This has seen negative effects, among them a kind of permanent momentum where change comes and change goes. We get used to failure.
From the conversations with my colleagues, scepticism of educational technology seems to be formed around the effectiveness of the technology, the same way many question academic standards like NCEA. Does this technology actually improve on what I do in the classroom now? Initially, the scepticism was more around the individual — is this learning tool improve on that learning tool. However, some lumped “technology” together from 1:1 devices with use of social media.
Further complicating matters for those teachers struggling with this change is the difficulty of effectively integrating technology in the classroom. I admit this has been difficult for me to appreciate this point. You have to understand not only content and teaching but also technology. They felt insecure as this showed gaps in teacher’s expertise compared to their peers. The teachers did not question technology because they’re not good at it, but just lacked the confidence to make mistakes.
I discovered a lot of brilliant educators who see the same apps and go to the same personal development and read the same books that I did still have a real problem with technology in schools.
Where I see a revelation, they saw expense, distraction, and a lot of buzzwords.
Education technology is expensive. It takes practice and a lot of trial-and-error, and just when you start to find your rhythm, it all changes again. It also naturally disrupts most schools and systems in general, at which point it becomes, whether teachers can see it or not, about how you see yourself as a teacher.
Recent policy changes by the NZQA regarding on-line assesment is making technology a matter of both policy, policy is not inspirational. Technology is awkwardly personal—it seeks out our imagination. A tablet isn't technology so much as it is a portal to a new way of interacting with the world.
That means the current system of education is under threat and showing its age. And some teachers are ready to burn it all down, and have been for years; for them, technology is transformational.
However in my conversations I saw another viewpoint that learning comes from the interaction between learner and content that technology can obscure. For them, technology is making a lot of noise in a room where they’re trying to get teaching done.
Technology doesn't make teaching better or worse, simpler or more complex. It changes it entirely.
I am not convinced that those teachers whom support educational technology are ready for this, much less the teachers that have been worried all along.
So what has the conversations I have had after being challenged by @AKeenReaders tweet led me to conclude? Firstly, every teacher needs to fully understand what they’re “for” and “against.” If we can summarize our thinking by being “pro” this or “anti” that, we are probably not really considering things enough.
Secondly, the arguments around the use of educational technology has distracted us from more important discussions around new learning models like blended learning, self-directed learning and flipped classrooms that technology enables.
So the way forward should be a more nuanced discussion about how people learn, and what role technology can play in that process. When we can shift the question from “Should we teach with technology?” to “How do people learn best, and how should we design learning with the technology available”, our collective energy as educators through collaboration to ensure that all teachers are supported will lead to improvements in education for all our teachers and students.
Comments
Thank you, I enjoyed this post.