Technology will propel education into the 21st Century.
While this seems to be a common sentiment, it is a deeply flawed idea.
The problem?
Activity is often mistaken for engagement. Students are using devices in school or at home. Using a shared Google doc, they peck away, with the illusion of "collaboration" in full swing. By all appearances, they're actively engaged and learning, together. Adults, often too busy with their own responsibilities or distractions, look and nod approvingly, without ever really scratching the surface of what they're witnessing. Never having "done school" this way, there is little choice but to trust this is how school is done today. Unfortunately, this lends itself to superficial activity, engagement lacking in purpose or meaning, and poor habits.
For example, at times:
Devices are used for "busy work".
An application may inadvertently "replace" a teacher.
A platforms or application replaces a worksheet or textbook.
If schools continue to use technology in superficial ways, "education" will not advance, but will be set back in time.
Here's the problem: School is being mistaken for learning.
School, teaching, learning, and education are not the same. Since March 2020, we've seen the impact of a global pandemic. Schools admirably "pivoted" from an in-person to remote setting, and back again. Kids learned that a critical part of "the curriculum" was resilience, empathy, purpose, and belonging. As digital devices became prevalent instructional platforms, students also learned the importance of a trusted (on-relative) adult in their lives. With each teacher, counselor, or administrator check-in to monitor wellness and maintain a sense of belonging, mental health began to join physical health on a common playing field.
If we abandon the thought that technology will propel education into the future, and embrace the idea that it's personal connections will instead, learning will replace and redefine what we've come to know and accept as "school".
Ditch the devices...maybe.
Don't get me wrong: Technology is can make a good lesson, great. But, a great learning experience can happen without technology. Consider what a lesson demands, cognitively, of the learner, before defaulting to device-use. Are learners engaged in Bloom's creation, evaluation, or analysis? Are learners engaged in transformational learning based on the SAMR Model, such as modification and redefinition of previous material? Teachers, classrooms, and schools committed to a disciplined approaches will result in learners understanding that device use is maximized when utilized for rigorous learning experiences.
Technology won't advance education. Meaningful engagement will.
Technology is overrated. Do we talk about how amazing pencils, hammers, paperclips are? Or do we see them for what they are, tools, that bring us one step closer to being able to progress towards a larger goal? A digital device is no different. While in some ways, they provided a path, through an emergency closure, and remote and hybrid instruction, nothing replaces the dynamics of a trusting teacher-student relationship. Keep your devices nearby. But before resorting to them in everyday use, take a look at what the goal is for the day's lesson. Filter it through Bloom's Taxonomy and the SAMR Model
.
If the outcomes don't yield a shared learning experience, elevated by technology use:
Ditch the Device.