Technology fundamentally transforms a classroom; I don’t think this can be disputed. But I do wonder if it transforms a classroom in a positive way. I am not, as you may have deduced by now, a gung-ho tech-savvy sailor. Yet, I am not completely opposed to technology. I believe it has its usefulness by giving students more options in how they learn and express their learning. I can see technology being beneficial also by helping to make a lesson better: perhaps creating more interesting and interactive demonstrations. Technology provides tools that we can use, much like a ladder helps us to climb up to a place we couldn’t otherwise reach. I am concerned, however, about technology becoming a crutch for student engagement whereby the teacher fails to be able to effectively communicate directly. In this era of television, smart phone and computer screens, technology has become a danger in that it has infiltrated every aspect of life. You don't see everyone walking around with a ladder in their back pocket for reaching those unstep-up-able heights, but almost everyone has a device of some kind on their person. It is my observation that people are becoming more and more reliant on texts/messages and photos for communication. We aren’t getting as much eye-to-eye contact or even oral communication. The more we physically distance ourselves from each other, the more we become unable to read each others’ feelings and so we become prone to alienation. There are all kinds of studies demonstrating that children are missing out on important developmental milestones because their parents are more engaged with their devices than they are with their kids. eg: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/04/21/304196338/for-the-childrens-sake-put-down-that-smartphone How unhuman can we get!? We are social beings and like all social animals we require physical interaction with others to maintain a healthy system. Sure students are engaged in school work when they are creating using digital tools to make all kinds of podcasts and vlogs and experimenting with robotics, photo-shop and music programs etc., but in my opinion the analog tools are just as important to incorporate and practice to carry students to their full potential as citizens contributing their gifts to the world. Creating things does allow students to take responsibility for their learning and sharing these things on the internet provides an authentic audience so motivation is built in to many tech-based projects. However, I feel that motivation is an intrinsic force when completing any project that a person is invested in on a personal level. Therefore, if students aren’t interested in, say, blogging their summer vacation, should they be required to blog if they would rather write a poem, or compile a hard-copy photo-album. For me the answer is no. Students should let their interests guide their projects. There is no doubt that the future is going to demand tech knowledge and it seems obvious that students will need these skills more than they need to know ‘stuff’. Stuff can be accessed anytime, anywhere, as long as you know how and have the technology to do so. In a world that has grown exponentially in the last 100 years, there is more stuff to know than is even possible to teach over the course of the 12 years of school. Therefore, integrating technology has the potential to build important skills and expose students to equipment that will be required in the future job force. I’m not sure if it is necessary or even possible to integrate technology when it comes to teaching equally important future life skills such as critical thinking, discernment, and dexterity, along with the social human life skills of compassion, cooperation, perseverance and patience. I don't think its entirely unfair to to attribute cause to computers (and the ease of access to information) for the effect of the current populace's impatience, lack of discernment/critical thinking, and inability to express and intuit feelings. So while I am not opposed its use, I feel that technology needs to be balanced right along with our nutritional, physical, spiritual (connection to natural world), personal and social needs. As teachers we have to think about how much technology a child is getting in the home and then we need to balance this in our classroom. Perhaps some students need experience with tablets, for instance, more than others. In any case, by modelling balance in the classroom and careful consideration as to when to integrate technology and when not to, we have the opportunity to teach our students self-regulation and the equal importance and beauty of all the other aspects of life.
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AuthorNatalie Nickerson; that's me. Archives
March 2016
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