Jul
16
2009
Why is it that as educational technologists we feel the need to stand on our digital soapboxes and scream, “You’re not doing enough! You’re not trying all the new things! How can you be a good educator unless you do? Think about the children!” It seems the thin air of the digital tower we live in is getting to us. I have read posting after posting pontificating the woeful state of educational technology because teachers and admininstrators do not share our passion and priority for integrating technology solutions into the curriculum. Parents say “we need more computer education!” without having an understanding of why and for what. Adminstrations see the number of computers and amount of hardware you have as a badge of technology education success. Yes, I do want an excellent education for my children…so prove to me what you’re spouting will do that.
Explain to me how learning how to use Twitter in the classroom will help my child become a better researcher. Explain to me how blogging will teach them better writing skills. Demonstrate to me how using the latest and greatest web solutions will help them in 10 years when they graduate and 90% of those systems don’t exist anymore. Face it…there isn’t a system we will teach them today that won’t be obsolete by the time they are ready to use it professionally. Stop kidding yourself if you think otherwise (see Moore’s Law for reference). Get back to focusing on the skills derived from the systems, not the systems themselves. Look at the yearly Science Fair presentation displays. The cardboard backboards come out, letters are cut out and glued, and the display is ready. But for some reason now it’s a “better” presentation if it includes a laptop with a multimedia presentation about the experiment. Is the experiment more scientifically sound because it’s presented with stereo audio and dissolving transitions? I can’t help but smile everytime I see a student without a “multimedia extravaganza” take a higher place in the competition over one or more that do. Show me a student who can articulate their work without digital assistance and I’ll show you one I would hire.
Do you want an easy test to see if you’re doing your job? Teach the students how to build a great presentation on a topic, researched on the Internet, with embedded video and audio, graphic representations of the topics involved, all encapsulated for easy delivery. Then turn off the projector and make them deliver the material. If they can’t…you failed, not them. So often I see the teachers who are highly competent to present in front of an audience of students (where they have control) turn to mush when in front of their peers. Is it because they don’t have an LCD projector or SmartBoard to “carry” their presentation or is it that somewhere along the line a teacher failed to prepare them properly?
Stop being a computer geek and start focusing on the needs over the hows. Students NEED to be able to present comfortably. They don’t NEED to know how to use PowerPoint 2007 to do that. Students NEED to develop writing and critical thinking skills. They don’t NEED to use Wordpress 2.8 to accomplish that just because it’s not Wordpress 2.7 and has a new feature or two. Want another great example? Check out any of the videos by Creative Commons. Exceptionally well done with strong information sources and a smooth topical delivery. THEY WERE DONE WITH PAPER AND MARKER! Impress your students with skills that work with or without technology. Don’t let yourself become the “Twitter teacher” because you’re then nothing more than a “Twit”. I will never stop advocating there is a place for technology in the school and the classroom. But I will also never stop saying it has a time and a place and that isn’t all the time and everywhere.
Jul
14
2009
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Oct
21
2008
For years now I have wondered about the term “educational technology.” What does it mean? What does it contribute to the world at large? Does it actually make a difference to the students as they graduate and move into the real world?
There is a reason the word technology takes second billing in the phrase. Technology is a tool for helping deliver the education. The hammer and the pneumatic nailer are both tools that reach the same result. One is technical, requiring understanding and practice to use safely and at peak efficiency. The other is a hammer. Are we teaching our students and staffs how to use the nailer at the expense of the hammer or at the expense of being able to choose the right one at the right time?
Each new technology that comes down the pike with furor and fanfare will be replaced by another “superior” technology. Chalkboard to whiteboard to interactive multimedia presentation system. Has the message on the media changed or are we just pandering to a perceived short attention span mindset? “This is the computer generation people! They can’t learn without digital tech!” Funny, I still see groups of kids sitting around a teacher as she reads aloud and turns the pages of a (GASP) book! Why do we have such a hard time accepting the fact sometimes a teacher just wants to use a whiteboard?
Listen, I’m not damning all educational technology. You know me better than that. What I am challenging us with is getting off the high horse that technology is THE answer and look at it as AN answer. We must spend time working with our staffs and helping them think through their options. We also MUST be willing to accept part of a technology solution is the willingness of the user to use the system. We must also accept sometimes the most technical answer is not the best one.
Stop screaming in the echo chamber. Prove you know what you are talking about to people outside the technology field. Present intelligent discussion and options to your staffs and stop the Luddite branding if technology isn’t the chosen solution. In the end it’s all about Benjamin, baby.
Think I’m wrong? Bring it on.
Oct
17
2008
I recently received a question from a parent about how it would be best to manage and filter their child’s web site explorations at home. Here’s my response:
Sit down with your child at the computer and ask him to teach you about Webkinz and Neopets and the other sites he is interested in. Don’t take it from the position of evaluating the sites but rather from a sincere interest in learning more about them and what he is interested. By doing that you will gain several things:
- You will have a better understanding of these virtual worlds and the types of interactions that can happen in them, both positive and negative.
- You will be able to spend some time and observe his/her interactions with the games and see what aspects of them he tends towards. Boys by nature gravitate to more action-oriented sections of games where girls traditionally gravitate to puzzles and interactive environments. (Of course there are always exceptions to the rule).
- Gaming environments can be very engaging, especially if a child has a vivid imagination or tends to get immersed in things easily. Compare his game reactions to the reactions he has to movies and cartoons. Are they similar, stronger, or weaker?
- Look for common themes in the types of characters he/she chooses to play. If he/she chooses one over another, don’t hesitate to ask him why. There may be commonalities in his decisions, such as powerful versus weak, a specific look, gender association, etc.
- This may be the biggest stretch for you…but ask him/her to help you set up your own characters and take you through the world. Aside from it being good quality time you will be establishing credibility with him when it comes time to execute parental control on worlds and places he should not be entering. Do not hesitate to try the sites he is visiting on your own when he is not around. The more you learn about the sites the better off you will be.
- Check in with him. Every so often ask him/her how his characters are doing (make a point to learn the character names and the names he/she gave them).
There are systems available that can be used to filter web sites from kids (we use one at the school called OpenDNS [http://www.opendns.com] that is free and provides a great deal of control at the machine level. However, no technological solution can replace building the understanding between you and he as to the types of things you consider appropriate and not.
The sites he/she has identified so far are known kids sites and many have protections in place for child safety. (Gaia is targeted for PG-13 so I’d recommend against that.) Most sites that draw kids will have some sort of parental information available easily from their home page.
He/she will want to explore and try new things, that is a given. Working with him/her is the best solution in preparing him/her to be responsible as he/she grows on the internet. I equate it to when he/she starts to drive. The driving lessons will be invaluable since at some point he’ll have to leave the parking lot.
Comments?
Jul
10
2008
Ok, I posted a bit ago about how good an idea it was to create quick reference cards to helpful web tools for teachers (since the observation that they never throw out ANYTHING that’s laminated). Here’s the next step. I’ve attached a template I just threw together in Powerpoint (for lack of a more accessible tool) you can fill out and print. It’s sized as a 3″ x 5″ card, so with a single hole punch in the corner and a locking ring through them they should be very helpful.
