Technology in our society should be more than a topic for superintendents and principals to use in speeches in order to make them sound as if they are cutting-edge educators. These speeches are given to impress groups of parents by drawing great pictures of students, who will have the ability to create, collaborate, communicate and learn with the modern tools of technology. The picture drawn shows our children liberated to learn. They sell the sizzle, but nobody will ever get to see the steak.
Those same technology tools for education become problems to be controlled and limited. They become problems because they are yet another element of education that requires Professional Development. They become problems as added items on an ever-growing list of items for which administrators are to be held responsible to the public. They become problems because they challenge many of the methods of teaching ingrained in the hearts and minds of many, many educators. These problems are of: money, implementation, support, professional development, safety, morality, cyber-bullying, scheduling, and infrastructure. We now have education policy makers making policies about technology with a limited understanding of how it fits in education as a tool for learning, or even how it works, and viewing it as more of a hindrance than a help. It would be so much easier if Technology went away and we could get back to the “Three R’s”, good ole’ read’n, rite’n, and rithmetic.
What many do not get is that Technology in Education is no longer a topic of Should we? or Could we?, but rather, “ How do we make it happen?” It is not a question of “How do we control it? but rather “How do we educate kids to use it effectively and responsibly?” How do we develop today’s literacy, so that students can use these skills beyond the classroom and apply them to life? How do we enable them to use these skills to be productive and successful and safe?
There are no answers here. These same arguments were made when the first computers entered the system. People discussed the same issues then. While educators are stuck on the same questions as to whether or not technology has a place in education, technology keeps moving forward. It does not need permission to be used by kids. Educators cannot control it. The only place the “Use It, or Lose it” axiom applies, is to our own relevance. If we fail to understand and use the technology, our students will not need us at some point. Technology is a tool and not a teacher, but if teachers fail to grasp that concept and do not embrace the possibilities, the idea of self-education may grow stronger with the advancement of technology in the light of stagnation in education. Educators are smart people and they need to figure this stuff out.
We did not have the use of pencil debates. We did not say pencils can poke eyes out, so we need pencil safety courses. We did not create pencil labs for large group pencil use. We did not ban the use of pencils because students might be distracted by doodling. We did require a specific platform, the #2 Pencil. Yes, I understand that it is a much more complex issue than that, but a tool is a tool is a tool. We need our leaders to be more aware of the decisions they are making. We do not need 19th century thinking controlling 21st century problems.
These topics were discussed at the #140 Character Conference in New York City. There were six education discussions on the Agenda. This video was one. The Education Panel Video: Click Here
Another passionate presentation was done by Chris Lehmann. That video is linked Click here.
Feel free to pass the videos or Post along to anyone that you think might benefit from the information.
My Island View 
Great thoughts. I just read another blog that discussed how laptops were banned because they were being used not as note-takers, but as distractions and students were visiting social media sites.
It’s quite obvious that what you say is true and may believe it is ‘more of a hindrance than a help’.
I am so impressed with everyone’s ideas about collaborative learning. I can’t wait until every student has the ability to use a device to do live research and contribute to a larger collaborative project along with the many other benefits.
Apparently though, we’ve got a bit more work to do letting everyone in on what we know is right. Thanks for the opportunity to comment on your great post.
I started this school year with a risk-taker attitude and jumped into using my computer classes to teach 21st century skills. We have used many Web 2.0 and social media tools this year, and along the way there were successes and failures. By Jan, although I had already talked about digital citizenship, it was apparent I needed to go deeper. Opening up the world to them, and unblocking apps and sites that used to be block at a 1:1 school, turned out to create a lot of discipline problems. It was disheartening. My excitement fizzled and I began to question if this was the right decision for a middle school. I know it is obvious that more training is needing for the students and teachers, especially in the area of digital citizenship. I’ve been working on a plan for awhile, but still with a disheartened attitude. Then I saw you, Steve and Eric present at the 140 conf and then read your blog post. I think it might have been your pencil analogy that is bringing that spark back, because it made so much sense to me. Pencils are used at times for the wrong reasons but it’s a tool students use over and over, so they don’t even think about it. Technology, and the way we use it in class, is still new to some students or schools, that students aren’t conditioned to always use it appropriately. As we continue to improve training for teachers and condition students to use technology appropriately, the problems will fade. I look forward to teaching next school year and seeing how this years experiences effect its outcomes.
Thanks for your post and representing education at the 140 conference. Seeing the passion and vision in all of you has helped me to renew my own.
Great post! What is a #2 pencil?
You should have entitled it with the same title as John Mayer’s song: “Waiting On The World To Change”
We shouldn’t forget that the #2 pencil (as well as language) are technologies. Thank you for the post.
I watched your 140 panel discussion online. I appreciate your vision and passion about technology and education. I’m an adjunct writing instructor at a Florida university and face many of the same challenges.
If you have a chance, please read my post on teaching technology:http://writingdegreezero.com/archives/141. It is more discipline specific, as I am a writing instructor, but I hope you will provide me with some feedback.
Hi Tom – the pencil analogy seems to have struck a chord in a number of people.
A July 1894 Good Housekeeping article says “liberty would not be worth much without paper, and the country, nowadays, of much account without the pencil.” We could probably say the same now about digital networks; ubiquitious access is the modern day counterpart. More and more necessary for freedom and liberty. (The article is at http://www.todayinsci.com/D/Dixon_Joseph/Pencils-GoodHousekeeping.htm)
Other quotes from the article:
the pencil is “serviceable to the household, counting room, restaurant, schoolroom, and domestic and social as well as business life; the studio of the artist, the workshop of the mechanic, and indoors and out, everywhere. With the pencil we make memoranda of what we are to do, and records of what we have done; with it we write our orders for the marketmen, and keep the run of things in the home life; note down headings for sermons, speeches, addresses and “talks;” put on paper suggestions, reminders, conclusions and data of the times, of when and where we came into the world, what we do while in the world, and make mention of what we are intending to leave behind when we go out of the world.”
“The pencil, once a luxury, is now a necessity, and to-day is in every man’s hand, and every woman’s pocket – whenever her pocket can be found – and on every school teacher’s and every child’s school desk. Without it, commercial life would be brought to a standstill; domestic doings would be paralyzed, and social, political and religious circles and arenas would be but barren fields of human activity.”
It is amazing how well the quotes work today if you substitute “computer” or “laptop” or “smart phone” for pencil.
To me, it is a matter of equity.
Tom:
I attended the 140 Conference and found your panel to be very helpful. Readers should be sure to watch the video. I made a post on my blog with a link to your panel and the other two education presentations that I found useful. There is also a link that can get you to the entire conference. While you are there, check out some of my book summaries and the DARPA Network Challenge post. If you are in to Twitter you need to know about this. Just go to DrDougGreen.Com. Also, you mentioned a list of 500 educators that you give to your students. Could you make that list available to your readers? Thanks so much.
Best,
Doug Green
“I believe in Technology. I believe in support for that Technology. We need to teach our students to be prepared for their world and not one that which we might prefer. We do not get to make that choice.”
— I think this sums my philosophy about technology change perfectly. We do not have a say whether or not technology will continue to evolve and control our daily lives. Why not put that control the best use possible? But we do have a say in how educators intergrate this powerful tool into the classroom. We have the power to TEACH students about technology, just like any other important subject that will impact their future.
Tom,
I frequently ponder if it is a bad thing that we are moving more towards a society where kids do not necessarily need teachers to engage in their own learning? I think that this type of action is more like an asymptote than an “ends to a means”. The more that technology empowers kids to engage in their own learning, the more that they will become curious about other ideas and topics (thereby diminishing the need for a traditional teacher), but I think that the mentorship and ability to have a constructive conversation with an adult can even further stimulate this learning. This would, I think, create an even harsher reality of why educators, as a profession, need to change. This is a huge difference from a desire to change.
I think right now the desire to change is vastly greater than the need to change in most education circles. In a building of 200 staff members, how many want true change to the system? 5, 10, 20?
I just wonder if the shift that you describe above will help to force those numbers even greater and increase the need to a reality.
Thanks Tom!
Hi Tom,
Your post reminded me of a CUE (Computer Using Educators) conference ten or more years ago where Seymour Papert was the keynote. He got up and asked where he could find PUE, the Pencil Using Educators group. He figured there must be a PUE since we liked to name our organization after ubiquitous tools (or tools we certainly ought to be ubiquitous in schools). He delivered the line much funnier than I can write it, worked as slap-in-the-head moment for everyone in attendance.
:)Bonita
Tom,
I think one of the problems you pointed out is the area of PD. Unfortunately that PD, if even provided, is aimed at teachers. What about the vast amount of administration? They need PD in order to even consider how to provide for teachers proper PD and how to order technology items. In many schools I see the technology awareness dwindle the higher up the ladder I look. If decision makers are not educated properly on how they administer a program then integrates technology integration is hap hazard. The pencil still is an awesome tool but there is now so much more we can do. Training people to use new tools to support true 21st century student centered learning is a necessity!
Thanks for reminding us that change will happen, regardless. If educators want to have any say on that change, they better get involved. If not it will still happen perhaps by someone else! – Thanks – Mike
Tom,
I picked up the video of your roundtable at the 140 Character Conference through my Twitter PLN. Thank you to your and your cohorts for points well made.
I am a 60-year-old educator who came to teaching five years ago after a 30-year career in business. I guess I could be called a risk-taker, too. In my first year of teaching, my fourth graders and I had two computers at the beginning of the year. Within the first nine weeks, we built that to 19 and then to 24 by midterm. We began building learning networks with other classrooms around the world.
The second year, our school was going to close a computer lab because of overcrowding. I asked for and received permission to make the lab my classroom. We continued to build learning relationships with other schools. To date, we have partnered with 36 other groups of students on four continents and several islands.
Twitter, Facebook, and numerous other social networking sites are still blocked here, but hopes are high that both of those, along with cell phones, will be available to students next Fall. There is still much fear among the uniformed adults of our community. They fail to understand that my fourth graders, for example, have been using social media since they were two or three years old.
The best way we have found to convince them is through the very methods I once used in business – solid public relations and word-of-mouth from the people who matter to them most, the parents.
Parents are already permitting social media at home. They use it, too. When we Skype with kids in Taiwan, Israel, or California, we make certain it gets a mention in the newspaper. When we use Glogster to present science projects or a Facebook template to report on a famous person, we post it to our classroom wiki. Podcasts and blogging about hold technology helps us learn helps change the vocabulary of those who don’t yet understand. Entering and winning contests like the Global Virtual Classroom Challenge help as well.
While we have enjoyed some modest successes, we have a long way to go. We must continually teach our students how to best use the tools we use for learning. We teach them to practice safe surfing and to properly cite their sources of information.
As an educator, I have best learned and adapted my instruction through the relationships I have in my PLN. My goal now for my students is to help them develop their own Student Learning Networks. Then, I think, my administrators will witness the true value of social networking to education.
Rick Glass
Thoughtful piece of writing. I wonder if teachers were as scared of the pencil as they are now of technology?