Amplification

Much of my focus lately has been on technology in the classroom, which is likely a result of our current school focus on determining what, and how much, technology the school should consider investing in for the future. We recently spent time discussing the issue as a faculty, and I'm going to use the space to reflect a little.

One major point that struck me, in listening to the reflections of others, is how difficult it is to communicate just how much technology can (and in many cases has) transformed teaching practice. It is not that technology just offers different types of assignments and a greater variety of resources, but that the very nature of interaction between teacher and student can change. A repeating source of concern with technology, which appears to have started with Socrates complaining books would ruin people's ability to memorize, is that technology will decrease human interaction. The new potential of the much touted "Web 2.0" is, however, in the amplification of interaction. Face-to-face, for teaching, is essential, but that interaction in the classroom for a traditional lecture is often unidirectional (teacher to student), with the chance to ask questions (student to teacher). It also tends to happen one student at a time.

Without changing the style of teaching, what would a traditional lecture in which the technology is embedded as a tool look like?

I already use a Smart Board for lectures, and a personal laptop. If the students all had a similar tools and were taking notes on (for example) an equilibrium problem involving ICE tables, it wouldn't look that much different to an outsider, other than the pen and paper being exchanged for pens & screens. (It's my imagination, I'm assuming they're all using tablets.)

In the lecture I'm setting up a particular equilibrium problem on the Smart Board. I have a wireless mic recording my lecture, and the Smart Board is combining the audio with video of the Smart Board for the two students who are away at a regatta (something I already do), and I'm also webcasting the presentation to a student stuck backstage during the musical rehersal. While the teacher workstation is doing this, my laptop is running classroom management software that shows me updated thumbnails of what each student is doing. Running alongside this is a messaging system that records text messages that the students are sending (via moodle or twitter) about the class. I notice after setting up the problem that Ron hasn't managed to get started, and walk over to check what's going on. A few text that they keep getting the wrong answer for the initial concentration, and wonder what they're doing wrong. Denny, who's finished, texts a possible reason (they've forgotten to divide by volume). Scott is consulting the class wiki that was started a few years ago, and is looking up another example with the warnings and caveat's that other students have written. I've finished with Ron, and I reveal two more practice problems on the board, and quickly flick through screens to ensure everyone's on track and notice that Bettyanne's used a completely different method to arrive at the solution. I flash her screen to the Smart Board as an illustration.

To an outsider, it really wouldn't look much different than what I do now. There's a lesson, some practice problems, students working on material, and a teacher wandering around teaching and assisting. The connections, however, have been amplified. Alongside the traditional 'hands-up' question/response, there are students connecting with each other (via messaging), connecting across time (via the wiki and recorded video notes), and across space (via the livecasting). The options available to the teacher have also amplified, from messaging, wikis, broadcasting, to quickly checking on struggling students and recognising and utilising students who've had some initial success. This is without even considering how laptops can transform the traditional lecture into doing anything different. The use of classroom management software gives me a bird's eye view of what everyone is doing, giving me quicker and more accurate feedback on how my lesson is going.

For all of this to work in the previous utopian vision, a lot of things have to already be present. A reliable IT infrastructure, and adequate teaching training for starters, but this vision must be contrasted with the dystopian alternatives. If technology is permitted to evolve, students will continue bringing their own tech to class, using them without teacher management or involvement, surfing the web and playing tetris between taking notes and texting their friends. Of course, we might feel forced to react to the potential for distraction, and ban all student tech from the classroom.

The Red Queen effect is writ large across this issue.

Cheers,

Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School

Resource List

Twitter
14 Twitter directories to find new friends
We Follow
Qwitter
Schools that twitter

Smart Board (Interactive Whiteboards)
How can children really benefit from using Interactive Whiteboards
Customized Jeopardy Games
SMART Board Revolution : A Revolution in Education
Blog - Smart Boards in the Classroom
Flash Games for the Classroom
Teachers Love Smart Boards
Starting to 'get' Smart Boards
New Notebook 10 Professional Development at Teacher Online Training
Podcast310: All a Twitter about Twitter: Micro-Blogging as a Professional Networking Tool by Beth Knittle (MASSCUE 2008)

Multimedia
eGames Generator

Subject Resources
Wheatgrass Placebo from Skepticblog
General Chemistry - UC Berkeley Webcast
Alphabet geometry : introduces geometry concepts to your students by relating them to something they're all familiar with, letters
Wiki-teacher - Wiki-Teacher is a forum for teachers to share their collective intelligence through their resources, insights, and practices.
Curriki - Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them.
Undersea eruptions near Tonga / Youtube
Virtual Field Trips
Biology in Motion
Understanding Science : How Science Really Works
Butterfly timelapse videos!
Redefining DNA: Darwin from the atom up
Academic Earth - online lectures

Classroom 2.0
Create Your Own Student-Friendly Search Engine with Google
What is Cloud Computing?
Microsoft DreamSpark : DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.
Blog Resource Apture
Moodle-izing
Using Social Networks Professionally
Please Sir, how do you re-tweet? - Twitter to be taught in UK primary schools

Articles
Dallas ISD records show school held 'cage fights'
Bill would combat 'nature deficit disorder' in school children - Stupid label, nice idea.
Warning over narcissistic pupils
Paying attention is a more important skill than you might think - and new evidence suggests it can be taught
Studies show children can complete treatment for peanut allergies and achieve long-term tolerance
What is the Point of Science Education?
The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Wireless Electricity
Your printer is spying on you
Playlist for grading
Fresh research showing the damage of filtering 'real world' technology
Learning Theories