Integrating Technology into Education

This week my main focus has been the school committee that`s looking at how technology can further improve our teaching practice.

The first priority in any process such as this is, I think, the leadership. Whether that`s the formal leadership at the top, or the creative and exploratory work of other teachers leading the way, how technology is introduced is more important than what technology. Technology seems to naturally demonize itself, and a knee-jerk reaction to any new tool is almost always to take the easy road: ban it. There are laptop schools that have decided to revert, and abandon their projects. Whenever I read about such a case, the leadership usually shares some or all the following characteristics: ignorance of computers and virtual learning environments, unaware of potential hazards, directed by IT (rather than teaching) staff, and unenthusiastic. I won't mention the school's name, but one in particular was forced to participate in a laptop initiative over the principal's objections, shoved the project onto the overworked IT staff, who simply handed out laptops to students and teachers on the first day of classes. A colossal waste of time, energy and resources.

The linked NYT article is interesting, but reading between the lines you can find the same process at work. Students knowing more than the teachers, teachers unable to figure out how to use the unique capabilities of computing for their curriculum, and no thought to the professional development of the teachers. No administrator thought of classroom or course management tools.

Computers have revolutionized every aspect of our society that has utilized them. A priori, if a technology plan fails in your school, it is not the fault of the technology. If you hand out a bunch of hammers, it's not the fault of the tools that a house isn't built the next day (or that the local corner store had its windows smashed and robbed). Blaming technology is a result of either lazy planning, lazy thinking, or lazy learning (i.e. unwilling to learn from mistakes).

So, how do we ensure that our teachers thoughtfully implement technology? I think the first lesson learned is that teachers must have training and access to the technology before the students. The 'one laptop per child' idea is a little silly if the only people with the laptops are the children: WOW, tetris, and Facebook are far more entertaining than ICE tables in chemistry class. Give the laptop to the teacher, however, and you increase the potential for professional development, and the collaborative nature of the classroom itself. While many children do not have a laptop, many have access to a computer, even if that's just in the local public library. Once the teacher becomes aware of the possibilities, some use of technology will occur. Even if it's just online course management to assist absent students, with a few activities built around what computer access there is, the teacher has accomplished three things: increased student resources, increased emphasis on student responsibility, and taken advantage of the collaborative opportunities available using technology.

As I hope is becoming increasingly obvious, it's not about the tools, but about increasing engaged teaching and learning. Forcing implementation by simply handing out laptops or even just telling everyone to "use Moodle" would never work. A great teacher using 20th century teaching strategies will teach very well. A reluctant teacher using 21st century teaching strategies will be mediocre if we're lucky. A great teacher using 21st century tools just has access to some brand new opportunities and methods.

Next week: defining goals and policies, and allocating resources.

Cheers,

Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School

Weekly Resource List

Twitter
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/100-scientific-twitter-friends
Science-based twitter friends

Smart Board (Interactive Whiteboards)
http://www.garnetvalleyschools.com/1376103591610650/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=57394
A large number of Smart Board Links

http://gettingsmarterwithsmartboards.blogspot.com/
Blog : "New and interesting information related to Smart Board use in education."

http://pdtogo.com/smart/
Smart Board lessons podcast

Multimedia
http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
Sound file converter for Windows or Mac.

http://prezi.com/
The zooming editor for stunning presentations.

http://metaatem.net/words/
Spell with Flikr!

http://www.wordle.net/
Generate "word clouds" from text. The picture at the beginning is from here.

Subject Resources
http://hatakappodcast.blogspot.com/ & http://21chatak.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html
AP Chemistry Podcast & Blog

http://www.brainpop.com/
Online flash videos for many different areas. Subscription for most content, but there are some free previews.

http://www.math-kitecture.com/index.htm
Math and architecture

http://www.seedmagazine.com/darwin_200.php
Celebrating Darwin's 200th Birthday, selection of articles

Classroom 2.0
http://grou.ps/m4projects/wiki/54363
Classroom Collaboration 2.0

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
Online task list

PLN
http://www.teachhub.blogspot.com/
Blog "Countdown to Teachhub" - useful classroom ideas, interesting discussions

Articles
http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2009/02/documenting_ent.html
Interesting article on grade inflation

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion/08nisbett.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&emc=eta1
"Education is all in your mind" at NYT.