Show Me the Facts!

This year’s Beloit College Mindset List provided an interesting cultural touchstone for those students entering college this past August. They stated that this is the first generation for whom a “phone” has been primarily a video game, direction finder, electronic telegraph, and research library. These students, or 18-year-old young adults, are heading into college and have had a phone, with all the above features, available to them their entire lives. So, what does this say of technology and how it is shaping the future leaders, future teachers, future lawyers, future doctors, etc. 

After looking over the research reports provided to us, I personally found that Project Tomorrow's Speak Up was most interesting and beneficial to me. From their website, I would like to touch on three facts that spoke to me as an educator. 

1.     Technology leaders (67%) say that the greatest challenge they face in implementing digital learning or expanding technology use is motivating teachers to change their traditional instructional practices to use technology more meaningful with students. 

            I have only been a teacher for 4 years, so when I was going though my academics in undergraduate courses, technology was part of our learning. Therefore, when I stepped into the teaching role I knew technology had to be part of it. However, it makes me cringe when I am sitting in a professional development opportunity with some of my coworkers who have been working for 30+ years and the lack of desire they have to even attempt technology in their classroom. It is not even that they don’t understand the new technology resources; it’s just that they refuse to change the way they’ve been teaching. I myself can admit I am no perfect teacher, and that is why I decided to continue my education to continue learning new and improved teaching styles and strategies. My personal goal would be to avoid becoming like the majority of teachers who are unmotivated to change their ways. I wonder if any of you have similar coworkers? How have you (or higher administration) dealt with them? 

2.     Teachers who have experienced online and blended classes for their own professional learning demonstrate advanced uses of technology with their own students, have stronger valuations on the role of technology within learning, and higher aspirations for leveraging technology to support transformed learning environments. 

            

            As I stated above, since I was in school with technology I think it is easier for me to adapt to technology and use it for my teaching. It comes more natural after I’ve seen other professionals use it and learn from them. This course alone has provided me with opportunities to evaluate how I am being presented with material, and how I can use some of the same presentations in my classroom. So how can we encourage other teachers who aren't as familiar or comfortable with technology to become engaged with technology?

3.     Teachers identified five essential elements that they need to effectively and efficiently integrate digital content, tools and resources into daily instruction in their classroom:  planning time, access to technology in the classroom, technology support, professional development and consistent, high quality Internet connectivity.  

            Time. Time. Time. It seems that as teachers we never have enough time. I think the five points mentioned here were very accurate. Teachers are asked to have a million things going on at once, so to expect them to keep up with the technological demands of our ever changing internet requires more time. Then there is the question of how to provide each student with Internet access or who will help us when those Internet accesses don’t work. We need to consider professional development opportunities (that require more time!) for teachers who are less comfortable using technology to learn the new skills. Most importantly, I think most teachers in our generation can speak to the fact that they planned a perfect lesson using online resources and then the Internet connection was lost and the whole class period seemed ruined. How can we rely or count on the Internet at all times? Truthfully, we can’t. So as teachers, we always have a back up plan! 

This photo was borrowed from Project Tomorrow's Speak Up website. 

I also enjoyed stumbling upon the many graphics available on Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up website. The one above listed the 10 Things Everyone Should Know about K-12 Students’ Digital Learning. Number 6 on their list stuck out to me the most because it stated that only 48% of high school students are using the Internet daily to support their homework or school assignments. This SHOCKED me because I am currently in a high school setting where each student has his or her own individual iPad. I would have to say that 100% of our students are using the Internet to supplement their learning, not only daily, but several times a day.

The search article on Common Sense Media talks about how teachers feel that some students’ use of entertainment media on the Internet has hurt their academice performance. I hope we can all agree when I say that the Internet has it’s pros and cons. The use of video games, texting, iPods, iPads, cell phone games, social networking, applications, online videos, etc have definitely impacted the way our students learn. The biggest problem area for teachers is students’ attention span, with 71% of teachers saying the use of above media has hurt their students “a lot” (34%) or “somewhat” (37%). From personal experience I can state that students seem more distracted because of the fact that they have the iPads accessible to them for the school day. There is more temptation for students to use the iPad for things that are unrelated to school, taking their attention away from the task at hand. 

This has also impacted their writing skills. Nearly 58% of teachers say their students’ use of entertainment media (such as texting) has hurt their students’ writing skills. I have first handedly seen “u” instead of “you” or “b4” instead of “before” in papers that were turned in for grades. Students have become comfortable with writing in short hand.

So where do we draw the line? What does the research tell us? Is there more good than bad that technology brings us in the classroom? My hope is that with the writing monitoring and balance, technology will bring more good than headache.