I recently stumbled upon Mr. Thielmann’s blog this morning – a high school social studies teacher in Prince George, BC – and wanted to reply to the great questions he asked in his “Digital Story Telling” post. In it he asks:
“How is technology helping or hurting in the demonstration of learning? How can we build on this?”
My answer is simple: If it’s not adding value, it’s a gimmick.
We’re one of the few animals on earth who can readily create tools and devices to help us meet our needs. Sure chimps can use twigs to get into ant hills (and even use spears), sure ravens perform all sorts of intelligent tricks to get what they want, and on an on … But we are the only animal that can manipulate our environment – at will – to help us satisfy our needs. And that’s the true value of technology, in my opinion.
So with reference to Thielmann’s question about technology hurting or helping learning, I think we educators need to be thinking asking this question:
“Is this technology adding educational value, or is it just a gimmick?”
If our desired outcome is quality learning – like really meaningful learning – then we need to be looking for technologies that make this happen better and easier. And the worst thing we can do is waste our students’ time in learning new technologies without having educational goals in the first place. If that’s what we’re doing, then technology is a gimmick. We’re not adding value. We’re hurting learning.
Let me explain by sharing one of my own experiences.
How I Hurt Learning with Technology ~
A couple years ago I heard about blogs. “Cool,” I thought, “I’m gonna use these next week.” The day came and I spent 30 minutes of time walking students down to the computer lab, booting up computers, and guiding everyone through the process of creating Blogger accounts. Then – after 30 minutes of set-up time – I asked them to respond to a question on their blogs. Why did this hurt learning? Because – at that time and for that group of students – I had NO intention of treating the blog responses any differently than paper/pen paragraph responses. My intention was this: They write it. I check it. I record mark. Done.
Pen/paper technology would have sufficed for this one-time writing assignment, and I would’ve saved 30 minutes of class time. Instead, because I wasn’t ready to commit to regular blog use, I could have better used the 30 minutes for silent pen/paper writing in class. Then we could have used the remaining time for meaningful, face-to-face discussions about everyone’s responses to the prompt … really fleshing out our ideas and learning from one another.
How Technology Could have Helped Learning ~
I’m not saying blogs are bad. I’m saying that when we use technology it MUST be used to add value to our learning goals. It has to fit. It has to add value.
So what should I have done if I wanted to help my students’ learning with blogs? Easy.
- First commit myself to using them frequently with that group of students, making the 30 minutes of set-up time an investment rather than a waste of time,
- Incorporate the blogging comments feature into that assignment by shortening the length of my students’ initial response and replacing it with a component that asked them to compose 2-4 meaningful comments on their classmates’ posts,
- Lead by example by commenting myself, showing my students that I care enough about what they’re writing to do it myself,
- Display and discuss what was posted online with my students the next class. This is the most important because it validates the whole process and takes advantage of the fact that everyone’s comments can be viewed online, in an instant.
In sum, we can’t expect technology to improve learning if we just use it. It must add value. This means we need to re-think the form and function of our technology-related activities and assignments because, at the end of the day, if it’s not making learning better and easier, then it’s not technology. It’s a distraction.
The blog example applies not just to the use of technology, but to the use of any new or innovative or progressive teaching practice. The teacher can’t just try something once and expect miracles. Take, for example, something non-technological, like a Socratic seminar: try it once, and you’re all but guaranteed less-than-ideal results. If you quit at this point, big waste of time. But if you can accept that the first time is just a building block, and you can build on that first experience (making minor adjustments, analyzing with the students what did and didn’t work, allowing them to actually practice the skills needed for success in the activity), that patience will pay off. Of course, too often it’s not just students looking for a quick fix or instant gratification, but teachers, too.
And back to your excellent blog example: I know it’s just one simple way of incorporating technology, but were teachers to use blogs in the meaningful manner you suggest, they would, in effect, be extending the walls of the classroom. Something as simple yet valuable as group discussion – which has been traditionally bound to the classroom – can now, because of blogs, take place outside of school time. Here, technology has meaningfully extended the boundaries of the classroom, creating a complimentary learning environment.
Of course, another huge issue with technology is whether the teacher can get the equipment/platform/software to actually work in a timely manner. At Queen Elizabeth, we have a tech committee that discusses all these issues, and instead of the discussion focussing on meaningful integration of technology into the classroom, we get mired down with ridiculous issues like “Who stole the AV cables from the laptop/projector cart?”
I’m with Tim… most of the tech discussions in school and district are around tech support, basic software questions, and cords/cables… real mundane and usually misses the point. Modern proof of Thoreau’s claim that “most men [sic] live lives of quiet desperation.” When I was still new (2004) at the school I’m at now (D.P. Todd), I was “stuck” with English and Planning, but also had access to a decent computer lab any time I wanted… the result was a series of student blogs that carried their learning and pushed my understanding of how students communicated. Some of the blogs weren’t great, but we were witnessing the interactive web unfold, and spent a lot of time asking questions about how meaning was made differently depending on the technology (borrowing from McLuhan). If you use a lot of blogs with classes, please encourage them to bring in as much non-curricular content as they can (unless you’ve already realized that inquiry into emerging identity IS the curriculum) — this will give them the license to actually connect to whatever it is that is under study in your class.
@ Tim: Well said! There are no quick fixes are there? I think that’s the biggest trick of teaching: picking the best methods/mediums before getting started because doing things right requires an investment in time, energy, planning and reflection. Your example of a educational method 2400 years older than the blog really drives your point home!
@ Thielmann: Your comment on “emerging identity” is outstanding. I’ve never thought about using that as a curricular theme / lens from which to approach instructional delivery. Awesome!
Thanks for your comments guys! Great stuff!