Has Technology REALLY Changed Education?

[Michelle Davis]

A new NEA/AFT report on technology use found that even though many schools are connected to the Internet and have some technology, it hasn't really altered the way education is delivered. The technology is more of an "extra." Are districts and teachers using technology to really reach out to students in a new way? If not, how can school technology leaders encourage that?

[Norman Constantine]

This is spot on. Most tech in schools is used to bring things into the school. Technology to send things out, while avaiable, is usually blocked. Just as there is a cannon in literature, there is also a "cannon" in technology use in schools. Social networking technology is not part of the cannon and that is the reason schools have become irrelevant.

Norman

[Dr. Bill McIlwee]

Norman,
How do we overcome this "cannon?" Schools are afraid of student privacy and of the outside world in general are the reasons that I hear about students using Web 2.0 while at school. I know that my district is wanting to switch to Share Point in part because it allows for blogs and wikis to be kept on a district webserver - "safer that way." In the mean time, all of my students communication via Facebook or similar.
Is it the adults who either do not understand social networking or fear law suits that are keeping this technology out of schools - creating this "cannon?"

[Norman Constantine]

Bill,

I believe that it is schools creating this cannon, not because they do not understand social networking, but because it is a threat to power and control, which the organization of school is all about. Schools, especially K-12, are not willing to give students control of their own learning. Web 2.0 gives you power that you never had before....it removes the filters from what gets out there.....and that is disruptive to the status quo. Web 2.0 levels the playing field in ways we have only begun to appreciate. I am a fan of Illich and Friere.....How do we overcome this.....we need a rebellion.....we just have to do it.....Use Facebook in class.....Create Blogs outside of class........teach students how to be public without revealing privacy....Collaborate on everything......integrate cell phones into the learning process.....abandon specific curriculum in favor of what students are interested in.....teach and learn with passion......never ask a question of students that we know the answer to.....encourage students to challenge our views of the world......let them know that they are in charge of the world now and let them be in charge of their own learning......hoist them up on your shoulders and let them leap to unknown places.....

Here is the problem however.....How long would a teacher like that be allowed to teach in your district?

Norman

[Algird Sunskis]

HI,

I'm wondering... We value education. Education is for everyone. But when it comes to your question on technology I have to wonder if technology education is for everyone, or for everyone when they are ready. Is technology in our schools for all, for many, for some, or for the few? Is technology there for the serious, mature student, the mature student, the immature student, or the pupils?
I'm not joking. I'm serious. What do you think?
Best regards
Al

[Eric Gates]

Disruptive technologies that can really improve outcomes in education are rare, partly because it takes a lot of thought, money, and time to make really groundbreaking technologies, but perhaps even more because disruptive technologies get crammed into the current approaches, watering down their effectiveness, if educators even adopt them at all.

Example: we have an enormous problem with respect to math education in the U.S., but math educators crave more of the same, despite the deteriorating situation. When a truly disruptive solution comes along, it means the educators, administrators, students, and schools in general have to 1) understand the disruption and its value, and 2) make the necessary changes.

I have extensive experience fighting this war, and the stories I could tell of educators walking away from obviously superior outcomes to preserve the status quo are too numerous to be believed.

Eric Gates
www.aleks.com

[Gary Latman]

In the present issue (May 2009) of T.H.E. Journal, Dr. Ruth Reynard discusses "Technology's Impact on Learning Outcomes". In the article, she says, "Institutions--whether K-12 or higher education--that have adopted technology for instruction often have little or no systematic methodology in place for instructional technology use or how its success can or should be measured." She also asserts that "much of the reason we are not discovering in any meaningful way of measuring whether technology truly improves the learning experience for students or helps them attain the learning outcomes more efficiently is that the knowledge for the technology itself is smattered and that little is consistently taught to those who are currently teaching." Go to http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24383/ for the entire article.