The great minds at the Tyee are at it again:
Read this article and follow this story, it's going to effect your future in some way or other...
I'm not sure how layering more technology onto teaching will solve any problems...this all sounds eeerily similar to ideas that were employed back in the in the 80's.....Reagan's ghost lives on.....the Liberals new ideas on how to make education relevant will put us on the track to creating a two tiered education system similar to what began to develop in the 80's in the U.S.
If you offer choice and do not support choice in an equitable fashion....what do you create? Hmmm - inequality.
Plainly - those that can afford technology will gravitate toward technology, while everyone else will have to make do with "outdated"... methods of teaching and learning.
Does anyone in government recognize the enormous costs associated with "high-teching" the system? Can a system already struggling under fiscal burdens accommodate this drive for schools of the future?
More importantly.....
Moving away from the purely fiscal aspects of this problem I would like to address the effect technology has on students in their social relations to one another and their communities. I think the move to a more technological - individual based school curriculum is a huge mistake.
We already recognize that part of the problem with current and past pedagogy is the tendency for educators to deliver information that is detached from practical relevance, filled with abstract accounts, and intangible value. I DO NOT see how layering more technology into education will solve this problem.
Technology is a good way to aggregate and disseminate information, but it does this in a legalistic and individualistic manner...it allows access to more information, but does that make students better citizens?
Have we all forgotten what a large part of the school experience is for children? Technology is a arguably a suitable way to convey "practical" knowledge, but what about the importance of engaging the "practice of social life"....??? I think it's very important that we question the use of technology and the push for more technology before notions of the importance of what are termed "focal relations" (Smits 2001) are lost.
Focal relations refer to those interactions that are characterized in a uniquely human context: face- face interaction....before they are lost to the "lightness of information" - where technology becomes our reality. Ask yourself when you text somebody across the room from you - "is this already happening?"
I would argue that what we need is not more technology, but more human responsibility within our educational community, and this is where we have been stumbling, and this is where they will be able to take pedagogy away from teachers, because we have failed in our responsibility to our communities - our schools.
The real answer is not more technology - not more technology for students to learn on their own, to become more individualized - but a return to what Smits (2001) refers to as "the more elusive goals of citizenship" - those of caring, understanding and ethical pedagogy, that will lead us back to "...a more local and timely experience with each other and our communities".
So you say that's great - but how do I do this?
Well.. the answer is broad and general but it's a place to start:
First, if it has been possible to teach students the merits of technology, then it should be possible with comparable effort to teach them the limitations and ramifications of information technology in their education - their lives.
Second, how do we engage students that are so technologically orientated....how do we hold their interest? The answer to this question is counterintuitive to what I see as the accepted pedagogy of the day.
Contemporary message to (Yes even at UVic!) practitioners is centered on ideas of pedagogical practice requiring teachers to keep up with information technology and utilize in effect to entertain students. I feel practitioners have themselves been "captured" by information technology in an attempt to maintain "legitimacy" and "relevancy" in their practice. I believe as educators we have an obligation to deliver a more balanced approach of encouraging our students to approach their studies with, "...vocational, social, and self-reflective skills requiring quiet determination, serious and prolonged investigation, and attentive revision that run counter to the instant gratification delivered by the Internet." (Mueller, 2011, paragraph 8).
These are broad ideas, but they are a place to start, and if we don't get off our collective posteriors as professionals and citizens, they will, sadly, take teaching and learning away from us.
So when you ask me why I'm a bit hostile to importing more technology into the classroom this is why....it's not a knee jerk reaction, it's the opposite, it's thoughtful reflection on where this is all taking us, and I'm not willing to sit back and watch iPads and MacBooks take the place of the colleagues I'm getting to know and respect as the great teachers they will be.
This is my last post so I thought I would try to give you something to chew on - Peace - Blair
References
Mueller, Anthony. (2011) Teaching in the Age of Technology – A High School Teachers Perspective. Posted (January 10, 2011) Philanthropic Ventures Foundation’s Blog. Guest post from Woodside High School English teacher Anthony Mueller. http://venturesfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/teaching-in-the-age-of-technology/
I think this is a very interesting reflection. I like technology, but I definitely lament the development of community in Canada these days. There is no real reason to develop a community anymore, because it seems like people are under the impression that they do not need to rely on others any longer. It seems like this is what is happening in schools today as well. So how would incorporating yet more technology even further emphasize individuality over commonality?
ReplyDeleteI hear many people speak in class about their high school experiences, and many are suprising to me because some people attended truly huge schools, and knew only a small number of students in their grade or high school. I cannot relate to this, because I attended a school of 800 students, who had all grown up together in the same schools. Yes, there were cliques and yes, there was bullying, but everyone knew each other and i we easily cooperated with each other and worked in groups together because we had all known each other for most of our lives. Now, though I haven't been back to Smithers in almost 15 years, I feel like i have a community in the people who graduated from my high school. In that respect, I wonder if the money spent on developing more technology in the classroom, might not be better allocated to creating smaller school and class sizes, where a sense of community can develop. This may be a better route to take rather than ramming thousands of students into one school where they may barely know everyone in their class, and expecting technolgy to solve their problems.
I'm not against technology, I just don't think technology can or should replace "focal relations".
ReplyDeleteI agree the money would be better spent creating lower student/teacher ratios, hiring EA's creating closer communities....
To think a computer or an iPad can replace the human element....???