"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."
~John Dewey
Education and technology definitely seem like they go well together. As our world and society change, so does technology; therefore, our ways of teaching need to change as well. But how do they change? How do teachers use technology effectively, both in and out of the classroom? Is it possible for students to learn using devices, like computers and cell phones, and accessing sites, like Facebook and YouTube, that they use every day already?
In writing this first blog post, I decided to test the theories of education and technology myself. I searched YouTube for a video that discussed how schools are already using technology in their classrooms. And here is what I found and learned: Austin, Texas classrooms are beginning to replace paper with clickers, where students answer multiple choice questions and results are shown on a screen. Teachers are also using cameras to film each day's activities.
Students seem to love this new method, but my question is this: Should classrooms really be going paperless? While I believe it is important for both students and teachers to embrace technology, I'm not sure that that means getting rid of other methods teachers have been using for years to get students to learn. There's something to say about completing an assignment in class and turning it in for a grade; there's a sense of accomplishment when a student gets a paper assignment back with the teacher's handwriting on it. With clickers and screens, at the end of the lesson, how do students remember how they even answered each question? There's no note taking involved, so how do they learn from their mistakes?
Also, how does this change the way teachers teach? Do they now have fewer in-class assignments to grade? While I understand that students are able to interact with the new technology, are the teachers interacting with the students? They seem to be standing at a board all day and clicking to the next screen. It appears that students no longer get into small groups and work together; instead, they are working individually to answer multiple choice questions while the teacher then sees who got the questions right and who got them wrong. Is there any other discussion involved besides a computer picking on a random student?
And think about this: this news report was aired in October 2010; imagine how many other schools, even in states besides Texas, are already starting to throw out their old ways of teaching and instead use technology. Out with the old and in with the new? My view is not so much this, but rather adapt the old using the new.
"Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important."
~Bill Gates
I love your discussion on going paperless! I mean on paper (yes its a bad joke) it seems perfect. It's green. It's progressive. But, doesn't it take access to technological resources that not all schools have? And, doesn't it require students to learn how to read on screens and not on a paper. And, it seems a lot of people have problems with paperless reading. This is definitely a major change in education and society, but I think we have to question it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there are any studies (I mean, there must be) that look at how we read/learn differently when we read on a computer screen versus reading paper. On the one hand, why would there be a difference? On the other hand, most people seem to say that they just can't connect with a text reading it on computer as well as they can on paper. Or is that simply generational--is reading on a computer screen a skill or a way of thinking that younger generations will develop?
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was in high school and we got our first computer (!) that I wrote a lot of (bad!) poetry and short stories and I realized that I could only do it on the computer and not on paper, like literally I would be inspired to write as I sat at the computer, but not so with a notebook in front of me. Maybe that's just some weird idiosyncratic thing, but I wonder if it speaks to ways we learn and engage different with computers versus paper.
The final thing your post made me think of was a study I heard about talking on the phone driving and how it's dangerous (because you are distracted, but the person you are talking to is not sensitive to the things you should be sensitive to)...but how listening to the radio is not similarly dangerous. The connection I'm trying to make--and I hope it's not too loose!--is that human cognition is a complicated thing and teaching with technology brings up a lot questions about how we learn and respond to different things!
I was going just say that I learn better when I physically write my notes, and it took me a long time to be able to write stories and poems on the computer. I was in college by the time I stopped writing everything out, then typing it up after revising. Then I read Diane's comment. It hadn't occurred to me that the opposite problem could happen! I wonder if words on a computer are more easily erased, and it's therefore less intimidating to begin writing?
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I would not learn much with little clickers.
Like Brianne, I too learn better when I physically write my notes, but like DIane part of me has to wonder if this is because that's how we have always done it. We didn't have any other option when we were in high school. It's possible that this new generation will figure out a way to learn the material sans paper and pencil. But that's just me playing devil's advocate. In reality, I hate the thought of going paperless. Like you said, Caitlin, what will this do to student-teacher interaction? If we go entirely paperless, what's next? Pretty soon, teachers won't even need to be in the classroom with students in order to teach. We might as well start on-line high schools, or go all Xenon, Girl of the 21st Century and have hologram teachers. Or maybe I'm over-reacting just a bit. Also, does anyone else remember Xenon from back when ABC Family was still Fox Family Channel?
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhhh! Quizdom clickers!! I had to use those clickers in 3 classes in my undergrad here at UM, and probably in the 3 worst classes to use them in - chemistry, calc 3, and physics. I hated using them. Although I could see the appeal of them, they rarely worked and for almost every question we used them for, there would be someone who didn't get to answer because the signal didn't work or they didn't have enough time to work out the problem. I think they would be better suited for a foreign language class (like in the video) for vocab exercises, but definitely not for problems that require you to show your work (like in chem, physics, and math). I think your point about students having no way of remembering the question or their answer without having it on paper is valid - it's definitely something I experienced, and I feel like I probably would have done better in those classes had we used more paper and less clicking.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteI loved the way you framed your point with the two excellent and relevant quotes. I love good quotes, they always add so much to understanding in so few words. The video on the clicker technology in the Spanish class was very interesting as well. When I think back on my 10th grade Spanish class I can't believe how much technology has changed the learning paradigm. And for the better is my first impression. The student's comment about how much more competitive and involved they were reminded me of both how asleep me and my classmates once were in the same class and then also of how engaged and really into an interactive trivia night contest we all were at a bar some 15 years later. That being said, I do agree with you about paper and writing things down. There's beauty and value in old school ways and some things just shouldn't be left behind.
Whoa! The idea that going paperless (or clicker-happy) might make use lack artifacts our our learning blew my mind.
ReplyDelete