| | Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:24 pm | | | | Comments: 2 Views: 134 |
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Today's post is a little more difficult to write and think about than previous posts, and for that reason I hope that educators reading this take the time to give comments.
I've been moving through a lot of online communities and preparing for interactions with educators locally. Often in conversations educators talk about a desire to implement X technology into their classrooms. More often than not what is being discussed has more application to the educators ego than it does to practical real world benefits. This is a case of a medium controlling the message instead of the other way around.
It also seems that educators think very differently online than they do in the real world. In the real world most are concerned with methods for saving time while improving student performance. To me this explains a lot of the technology that was commonplace when I was a student. Examples of these established education technologies include copy machines, Scantron tests, as well as scientific and graphing calculators.
I've found that thinking about established education technologies is very helpful in considering how to include different or more advanced technologies into education. Is the tool able to enhance the process of learning? Does it allow students to learn more quickly? Will it save educators time? Doe is save the school money. I think in the case of all established education tools you can say yes, each of these tools does all of these things. So, when thinking about more advanced technologies they should also do the same.
Computers have not been integrated into curriculum with the same enthusiasm as the Texas Instruments TI-83 despite the fact that they are exponentially more powerful. Web technology is almost in the realm of novelty even though it can connect students to ideas and resources most educators are probably not even aware of. I think another problem with the web is that it is mostly misunderstood. People tend to use the web the same way children use computers; as distractions rather than tools.
There is also the question of how one should integrate the technology into the curriculum. Graphing calculators can be programmed for games and also hold formulas to cheat off of during tests yet they continue to be used. Multiple choice quizzes provide the answers to questions. These technologies survive because through proper application they have provided results that save time and resources.
It's going to be an ongoing project for me to continue writing and thinking about how web technology like christonium can be best applied to benefit the average educator. Further, I'm gong to assume that third grade teachers and 12th grade teachers have only superficially similar job descriptions and that the application of technology for these teachers is going to be very different.
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