In the early stages, technology held a lot of promise—‘it will transform education’ is what was widely said, written and genuinely believed. Fifteen-odd years later and classrooms look, feel, and function very much the same. Technology has not had the transformative effective so many thought it would. What happened?
As Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson point out in their book, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns,
“In the end, both supporters and critics of school technology (including researchers) have claimed that powerful sot ware and hardware often get used in the limited ways to simply maintain rather than transform prevailing instructional practices.”
Computers, software, and all other ICT (Information Communication Technology) tools have been treated as “add ons” to the current system. Web tools are used as another form of teacher-directed activities. To borrow from the LoTi Digital-Age Framework (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html), integration of technology (where it has been done at all) has very often stayed at Level 2:
LoTi Level 2 – Exploration
At a Level 2 (Exploration) the instructional focus emphasizes content understanding and supports mastery learning and direct instruction. Teacher questioning and/or student learning focuses on lower levels of student cognitive processing (e.g., knowledge, comprehension) using the available digital assets.
Digital tools and resources are used by students for extension activities, enrichment exercises, or information gathering assignments that generally reinforce lower cognitive skill development relating to the content under investigation. There is a pervasive use of student multimedia products, allowing students to present their content understanding in a digital format that may or may not reach beyond the classroom.
Teachers who have moved beyond this to more advanced forms of use—higher order thinking, communicating with other students, or collaborating with other classes, have done so almost exclusively on their own initiative. While integration of technology is often encouraged, there isn’t a board policy I am aware of that has mandated its use.
So the big question then is how to change this current usage of technology in schools to authentically transform teaching and learning.
I’ve struggled with this question as I’ve journeyed through this course, and the truth is—I’m not entirely sure. I have certainly gained a greater awareness of the tools that are available which will support my learners and allow them to make much broader connections and authentic understanding of concepts that I don’t’ think would be otherwise possible.
But I’ve also realized how deeply engrained traditional methods of teaching and learning are—and these methods don’t often correspond with new and innovative practices. While we can (and should) discover new ways of working with students and allow them to guide their own learning, we are still under the heavy umbrella of a curriculum which is very much content-driven. While I can (and will) use my newfound skills and knowledge about ICT tools into my classroom to transform my practice—until some much bigger and broader changes happen, I don’t believe ICT has the ability to reach its full potential in benefitting our learners.
Brian Lewis said,
February 21, 2010 at 2:14 am
Hi Tanya,
Many of the blogs I have read including yours comments on the work load of teachers and having too much. Not much is being taken off the plate of teachers. The curriculum for a middle school teachers may look smaller, but there is still much to do. Perhaps we have to move past the idea of the generalist teacher in the middle years and begin to have specialists in subject areas. This would lighten to load for teachers as far as planning and then perhaps give the teachers more of an opportunity to enhance lesson planning with all the wonderful available options. I agree with you that we are very content driven. Just take for example all the provincial assessments. Teachers would love to spend time learning the latest technology and I think they would if they were only needing to focus on a few subject areas. Until that happens, I wonder how far we can stretch?
Leah said,
March 5, 2010 at 3:37 am
I too wonder about the question, “ How to change this current usage of technology in schools to authentically transform teaching and learning?”
Think this question will remain as long as our own philosophies of teaching and learning stay the same. I know this school year many of our teachers have set their professional goals as incorporating technology in the classroom. However, after talking to some… it seems as though it is a very daunting task. The frustration of technology not working when you need it, definitely deters people from using it. We have also spent countless hours this past block, sifting through and playing with numerous tools, trying to find new tools for use in our classroom setting. Maybe many of us don’t have those hours to give up to sift through the tools that are available? Not only that, finding tools that are not just an “add-on” but tools that can enhance the learning in the infusion level of the scale. I have shown my classroom blog with many staff members and they just look at me like, how and when do you have the time to do all of this. The classroom blog is my passion though, so I put in the extra time and effort to make it an integral part of my teaching. I spend those extra minutes networking and creating projects to connect with other classrooms. So maybe, changing the current usage of technology in schools is about the passion that teachers have for it. As teachers we all have our strengths (passions) and weaknesses and even though for most of us who have taken that giant leap of faith into the world of technology and can see the true value it has in regards to student learning… maybe the exploration level of the LiTo scale, is “good enough” right now. Should we be pushing it to the next level of the scale if you are not ready?