Technology in Education:
Educational technology takes many forms in our schools. It can be a simple lap-top connected projector displaying a PowerPoint to a group of students, or a powerful, dynamic global
platform for collaborative project-based learning. Classroom applications can range from those that can track
individual student progress to create personalized instruction and drills for
basic skill mastery to ones that provide a programmable animation canvas on which
students simultaneously tap their analytical capabilities and their unleashed
creativity.
All these levels have value and a place in the educational setting, as long as the learning goals are clear and truly help develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills. But just as there are many teachers who stifle students’ curiosity and natural desire to learn through endless rote memorization drills, so too are the numerous applications that similarly substitute skill repetition in place of deep conceptual mastery. Like any tool, educational technologies can be poorly utilized and be even counter-productive. Computer-based math manipulatives, for example, are not a substitute for the kinesthetically rich process of handling base-ten blocks or algebra tiles.
All these levels have value and a place in the educational setting, as long as the learning goals are clear and truly help develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills. But just as there are many teachers who stifle students’ curiosity and natural desire to learn through endless rote memorization drills, so too are the numerous applications that similarly substitute skill repetition in place of deep conceptual mastery. Like any tool, educational technologies can be poorly utilized and be even counter-productive. Computer-based math manipulatives, for example, are not a substitute for the kinesthetically rich process of handling base-ten blocks or algebra tiles.
It's about good teaching...
There are many examples of excellent instructors who achieve fantastic results using only chalk, a blackboard and handouts – because they know how to teach. Yet too many educators are eager to jump on the technology bandwagon in a false effort to engage students, relying on the assumed magic of ed-tech tools. They make the common mistake of utilizing technology for technology's sake. Meaningful learning goals must prevail and engaging pedagogy must lead - there is no substitute, no matter how technologically embellished, for good teaching.
This basic understanding drives my involvement with technology in education. It will never replace the thrill in a child as they first watch a chicken egg hatch or the rewards of harvesting the first vegetables from the school garden ... nor should it try to.
But utilized properly, it can enrich the exploration of the cultures of this world, allow creative and meaningful collaboration with peers across the globe, provide tools for developing critical thinking and analysis skills, and give students the ability to virtually interact with anatomy, atoms and galaxies. It is an amazing tool … and yet it is only a tool. ( Cartoon Permission: Kirk Anderson - www.kirktoons.com) |