When personal computers came along I got a personal computer. Never let it be said that I allowed myself to be left behind! And I used it, oh boy did I use it. I did spread sheets, I learned how to email, word process, calculate, research - way before Google, edit photos, etc. I was there, I was with it. I was connected! But was I? Not really. The influx of new tools, sites, soft ware, hard ware, social networks, and other forms of connectivity came so fast that I couldn't or did not want or need to keep up. That was another time and another career. My career in education has brought about a new focus for me, a focus on finding the tools that I need to stay connected with learning - and not just for my students, but for me. I have become a learning junkie. I want all the new stuff and I want to connect in all of the new ways. In effect, that makes me a better teacher. A digital immigrant? I guess that I am, but I am working at it.
One of the questions that I have had for the last few years at ISB, as the tech department has continued to supply us with more and more laptop carts, is this: Why don't we require each student, from middle school on, to own their own laptop computer? In Marc Prensky's "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom 21st-century schools need 21st-century technology" he seems to agree with me. "The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students' personal self and brain". It is refreshing to see more and more of my students carrying and using their own computers - a sort of external hard drive for their brains!
I know enough now that I know when to guide, when to lead, and when to get out of the way. So many of my students are way ahead of me in so many ways that I use them as a resource for technology and also as tour guides or navigators or even lifeguards to save me if I get in over my head! These digital natives are my resource for terminology, navigation, investigation, interpretation, and sometimes even application of the many destinations in the ether. Certainly Prensky agrees with this, "First, consult the students. They are far ahead of their educators in terms of taking advantage of digital technology and using it to their advantage. We cannot, no matter how hard we try or how smart we are (or think we are), invent the future education of our children for them. The only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education."
The old paradigm for learning, the top down, crack open their heads and pour in what teachers accept as necessary knowledge, is a thing of the past. And it is becoming the distant past. The more we cling to that paradigm the more of a disservice we do to our students. As Prensky says, ". . . let's not just adopt technology into our schools. Let's adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we've done our very best. Then, let's push it and pull it some more. And let's do it quickly, so the 22nd century doesn't catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone"! I agree.
We reviewed the possibility of having every student with their own computers before the present tech team was on site. The trend out there in education certainly suggested if you run a quality, tech-connected school, every student should have access to computers. But research did not show that one-computer-for-each-student schools had neither better computer use nor better learning.
ReplyDeleteI applaud the approach our tech team has taken to provide students with computers. Students who want computers get them registered with Ed Tech so they have safe connectivity with the school system and lap top carts are provided for teaching teams and departments to effectively use when they need them. Computer use has been monitored in the past to determine where additional computers are needed and the school appears to have been generous with adding computers and carts when and where they are needed.
The day may come when there are so many students using laptops all the time that this policy is changed. But as we learned in this course, we wouldn't want to update the technology for technology's sake. If one were to walk around the classes in our division of the school now, one would find the teachers are generally not using technologies enough for parents to shell out for computers.
But there is a storm on the horizon. With 40-odd of us teachers taking these courses and with the degree to which our thinking about our students' effectively learning is modified, I can see a future in which a number of students will put pressure on their teachers (or parents will put pressure on the administration and teachers) to get digital. I'm confident when that occurs, the resources will be there when the policy requires it.
You may be right Harvey. I have several students with their own computers and they seem connected in a way that some other students are not. I know that for myself I rely on my computer so much that if anything should happen to it I may go into convulsions with worry. Maybe the time has come for students to have their own. And maybe the time has come for teachers to set the standard for their own use of technology in the classroom a bit higher.
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I agree we need to be 1:1 at ISB. I also agree with Harvey's statement that not every teacher would use the laptops to their fullest potential. And I agree with Harvey's observation that having 50 ISB teachers in this class may be the tipping point we need to re-evaluate how we use technology in the classroom as an institution. I think what we need are more teachers (and parents) pushing for the change. If we aren't vocal about how going 1:1 will help us reach our curricular goals, we can't expect the materials to miraculously appear in our hands (though I must admit, they certainly tend to do so in this very well resourced school).
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