Part of this has to do with the fact that tech talk amongst teachers just doesn't happen. I have yet to even hear "I don't think technology belongs in the classroom" or "I wish I had ____ in my classroom." But my reaction also has to do with a discussion I had with my peers about the results of their own "Tech in Placement" surveys. What struck me most about this conversation was not necessarily the amount of technology or even the quality of technology that is available to most of my classmates at their placements - several people talked about the difficulty simply getting access to the available technology - but the ways in which that technology is being used. Technology like Chrome books, Google Drive, and even PowerPoint are altering teachers' instruction and giving students entirely new ways of interacting with content and creating knowledge. Even as a tech skeptic, I still find it fascinating to learn what tech savvy teachers are doing in their classrooms with these resources.
Then I think about TCEC and my students and what they know how to do with what technology is available to them. And that's when I cringe. It is not the technology itself, or even the lack of it, but how it is being used, or rather not used, to support student learning. There is this ever-widening gap that technology is creating between what my students can do and what students at other schools, where technology is being implemented to enhance learning, can do. Although there is a computer lab at Tri-County, its availability is limited due to the online education program that requires use of that space most hours of the day. This is not to say that it is impossible to reserve that space, though my mentor teacher has yet to use the computers for a lesson or activity. Many of my students do not have access to computers at home and are not proficient at using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. Where does this leave them in our technology-reliant world?
It doesn't matter what kind of technology any school has if it is not being used to support student learning. Teachers need to know how to do this, to be resourceful with what is available. Despite students' overall lack of access to technology at home, there is one piece of technology that they admit to not being able to let out of their sight - their cell phones. To have that thing glued to their thumb pads is intuition. That cannot be ignored. I never wanted to admit it before, but students resistance to put their cell phones away for an entire class period is not just going to go away. We need to take advantage of what we have in ways that will benefit students and for those of us at TCEC cell phones may be the best thing we've got right now.
Hello Sam,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you're writing. Your voice and personality, as I know you, is easily discernible in your words and your style. In short, I enjoyed your post.
The "Technology in My Placement Survey" also had a great impact on me, and like you, still identifying myself as a tech-skeptic, I found myself strangely torn between the technological disparities that are becoming evident when comparing the results of these surveys from different placements. TCEC, admittedly, exists firmly at the lower end of technological prevalence in schools.
Technologies such as smart boards and Chrome Books, as you mentioned, can greatly diversify the opportunities for both teaching and learning in the classroom. TCEC, as we both well know, has neither of those technologies, and I again find myself torn over whether or not that is OK. As a tech-skeptic, sometimes I think what wrong with the black board, with drawings, and actually paging through a physical book? But then I am also angered by the faulty stasis of the technologies that TCEC actually does have. I have witnessed students abandoning their assignments regardless of their high interest level simply because the computers do not work. That is sad, and I think you are on-point with your statement, "It doesn't matter what kind of technology any school has if it is not being used to support student learning."
I appreciate your recognition of the prevalence of personal cell phones at TCEC and the way in which they (currently) inhibit learning. You wrote,
"To have that thing glued to their thumb pads is intuition. That cannot be ignored. I never wanted to admit it before, but students resistance to put their cell phones away for an entire class period is not just going to go away."
I want to propose the idea that having that thing glued to their thumb pads doesn't have to be intuition. Culture and consumerist society has made it so, but that doesn't mean that it is right, which I thin you would agree with. It also does not mean that we are powerless to change it. I agree with you that using cell phones for the purpose of learning may be an extremely effective opportunity at TCEC, but I encourage you to keep challenging that thumb-to-screen intuition that our students have. Personally, I like the thumb-to-real-pages-of-a-book intuition better.
Your fellow intern and friend,
Jesse
Sam, I can’t help but sympathize with your situation. Obviously, TCEC is a challenging environment to say the least, but not having quality technology just adds to the problems. I realize you are still skeptic about technology. At times, I share your sentiments on the matter. There’s certain level of idealism too it all. But, for better or for worse, technology is here to stay. As I think you’ve indicated or at least alluded to, students are being cheated by not having access to technology. More importantly, the technology available is not being used properly for student learning, which is clearly the chief goal of education.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I can’t help but wonder is the fact that your students have these amazing cell phones, but there’s supposedly no technology at home. How is that possible or even likely? Maybe, I’m being naïve. I don’t mean to come off as rude. I realize that there are students who genuinely lack technology at home. I would claim, without any evidence though, that there is a small minority of students who actually fit this category. In any case, I think we as teachers across the board need to find create ways to incorporate cell phones into the classroom as an educational tool. The fight against them is ultimately futile.