I feel that I must first state a disclaimer such as the one at the beginning of every Law and Order episode "The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event." However many of you may recognize or relate to the situation I am about to describe.
Many teachers I know, and I was once one myself, thought that technology integration meant including a PPT or a Prezi when providing notes. Maybe some were even daring enough to include use of the document camera when modeling writing or solving equations. It was limited, and it was BORING. In conversations with colleagues the topic of useless technology integration comes up quite often. Teachers will create a "graphic organizer" in Google docs and ask students to fill in the diagrams. Or they want to share a link with students so they include it on a Google document for the students to find. Yes it is funny, at least to those of you who get the joke, but it also very very sad.
Technology should open up new worlds of knowledge and learning, NOT just save us on the number of copies we need to make. Too many teachers are still using the technology in their classrooms to create web-sheets. Filling in graphic organizers or taking a test on a computer isn't integrating technology. It is the same type of learning students have been doing for years. You have just changed the location of where the information is stored. Instead of recording it on paper, they put it on a screen. There is a time and place for all things; worksheets have their purpose too, but we shouldn't confuse the mundane task of filling out a form with integrating technology. Now if the students create the form in Google, analyze the responses, and then develop a plan of action based on the results that is a different conversation all together.
Let me give you a very REAL scenario of the lack of integration in most technology classrooms. My youngest child told me again yesterday how lame his technology teacher was. I asked him what was wrong this time, and he explained that "Mr. Jones (not his real name) didn't know anything about technology at all and should get a different job." First I had to be sure that Jack didn't actually tell Mr. Jones this out-loud, that his filter was still working and he just THOUGHT it. After calming my fears, Jack said that the problem was Mr. Jones could tell them how to create a word document and where to put the spaces for a formal letter and he even knew a couple of "kinda cool" websites for games about school, but that he really didn't know anything about computers. The problem, it turns out, is that when asked how to download information into a game Mr. Jones simply said "I don't know I just teach computer class." Jack and I brainstormed solutions for what he wanted to do. I gave him some advice, mainly the obvious, stuff like "why not Google it" or "see if there is a YouTube video on it," and Jack went on his way happily. Secretly I started to wonder a little about Mr. Jones myself and what was the point of this computer class. This is a sad but explicit example of how so many teachers confuse using the device with integrating technology.
In order to truly give students the benefits of technology integration we must start thinking beyond the device itself. Steve Jobs, didn't spend his entire life creating new ways of communicating for you to spend money on a phone simply to make phone calls. As the changes in technology and capabilities grow we must grow with it. The days of a typing class are well behind us. Or are students just typing on laptops instead of typewriters as my example illustrates? Do me favor, do Jack a favor and do all the Mr. Jones-es out there a favor. Check on your neighbor next door, you know the teacher you can probably hear through the thin walls. Make sure they aren't boring their students to death with more web-sheets. Show them a trick or two from your varied bag of tricks. Let us not only be leaders in technology integration but guides for all those reluctant followers who may not know the way. Grab them by the hand and take them with you so that all students will reap the benefits.
Until next time...
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