Throw Away the Chalk

"Chalk and Talk", as Jouneau-Sion and Sanchez calls it, is a thing of the past.  It's time to throw away the chalk, turn off the teacher talk, and put the focus on students, including technology for their generation, not Grandma's.  Though it may be difficult for teachers to adapt to new ways of doing things, we owe it to the next generation, and ourselves, to utilize the resources at our disposal to best develop our future through students.

For the past several years, walking through the doors of the middle school where I taught felt like I was going back in time.  Students would hide the gadgets that seemed to be an extension of their own bodies, making sure the devices were never visible to adults.  Teachers turned on overhead projectors, played DVDs, and recorded grades online, thinking they were utilizing technology in the classroom. And they were.  However, this is their technology, not their students'.  Teachers have a very hard time adapting to new technology because they feel they learned successfully from such devices and have taught successfully for quite some time.

As Larry Cuban made clear in Teachers and Machines, the same problems teachers have with adapting to new technology in 2013 existed when film entered the classroom in the 1920s, radio entered in the 1930s, and television entered in the 1950s.  The challenges making it difficult for teachers to use film when it first entered the classroom are the same as it is for teachers to adapt today.  In fact, if one replaces the word 'film' in Cuban's passage (p. 18) below, with the word iPad, computer, or app, the statements are equally true today.

...the following reasons turned up on lists of obstacles blocking increased film use in classrooms:

• Teachers' lack of skills in using equipment and film
• Cost of films, equipment, and upkeep
• Inaccessibility of equipment when it is needed
• Finding and fitting the right film to class

I have heard teachers make the same complaints as they are faced with integrating computers or  iPads into their lessons.  They express having little training and access to equipment.  Money is often to blame for a lack of progress as well.

Adding to the challenges of integrating technology is the fear teachers have; there is danger in the unknown.  As Caroline Jouneau-Sion and Eric Sanchez mentioned in "Preparing schools to accomodate the challenge of Web 2.0 technologies", students will find unsavory content and be prone to cheating with the accessibility of the internet in school.   However, teachers must trust students and teach them to make informed choices when using technology.  Rather than avoiding technology, teachers need to embrace it as a motivational tool.  As Jouneau-Sion and Sanchez said, teachers must accompany students in this move forward.

Meanwhile, students' phones are vibrating in their pockets, with status updates and notifications of photo postings making their presence known.  Students go home and create new worlds in Minecraft, create and share photo collages, and Skype with family members across the country.  Teachers need to adapt this technology to learning.  It holds the key to motivation and rich learning experiences, opening the virtual door to a the world and a universe of knowledge.

With use of current technology, teachers can facilitate collaboration on projects using tools like Wikispaces, reflection through ePortfolios and blogs, deep learning through inquiry, and building new ideas through creativity and innovation, as Jouneau-Sion and Sanchez explained.  Students should be called scientists, engineers, historians, and designers.  They should be in environments in which real-life designing of new ideas and building of new products should occur.  Every student should learn to code and should also be using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, the internet, and each other to learn, not a textbook and a teacher lecture.

With the availability of online environments, students have choice.  With increasing dropout rates, students belong in their own natural habitat.  Options should be available for students to learn online, face-to-face, or in blended learning environments.  Devices must be removed from pockets, and incorporated into learning environments.  All students must have access to hands-on learning and current technology to adapt to their own needs.  Boredom is a problem, according to Jouneau-Sion and Sanchez.  We are at a turning point in education, and society, and it is time to listen to the kids.  They deserve much more than being bored in rows facing an antiquated technology - the teacher.  

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."  -Winston Churchill