I love technology. When I want to know which games are playing on the TV, I can simply ask the question of whatever device is nearby, and get an instantaneous answer. My phone, and car, have GPS so that I never have to try to remember how to get somewhere or how long it will take. I can type documents or blogs and easily delete my mistakes without needing to take out a new sheet of paper. If I get stuck, I can call upon the powers of AI to help me with those same papers (rest assured, I did not do that for this blog).
I absolutely love technology. But I also hate it, from time to time, with my students. I often wonder if other teachers feel the same, and so I have created my own list of three things I like about technology use in the classroom for my students, and three things that I am not a fan of when it comes to technology.
Three Things to Like About Technology Use in the Classroom
1. It’s What WE use
Using technology in the classroom is asking our students to use a tool that they can immediately transfer into “the real world.” Technology is not going away, and so the more we use it in the classrooms, the more comfortable our students will be with it when they are asked to use those skills in their future jobs. The world beyond school requires us to use technology in many different capacities, and so getting used to computers and iPads and all the other fun gadgets that we have access to these days only prepares our students to be successful in the future.
2. Comprehension Strategy
Technology use in the classroom can enhance our lessons, allowing students to look up visuals and videos to help them understand a confusing (to them) subject or else learn it deeply. Think of students who struggle with concepts, whether it is a new to them idea or because of being a language learner. How much better do they understand when we can enhance our lessons with videos and graphics to give them a clearer picture of what we are trying to teach? Or the student who latches onto a topic and wants to learn more, and is now able to through search engines, videos, and further readings? It really opens possibilities for deeper learning.
3. Accessibility
Portable classroom technology access means that if our students miss class, everything is accessible to them from home. No longer are the days of “What did we do yesterday?” or “Can I get this worksheet since I missed class yesterday?” Nope. You have it. All at your fingertips and all you have to do is go into the LMS to access what you missed. Many of my students tend to take a few additional days off during vacation season, and they miss class content. Having a school-issued laptop (if your district is able to provide 1:1 devices) allows students to stay on track, versus falling behind.
So really, there is a lot to love about technology in my classroom. However, I also see some drawbacks.
“To sound like the grumpy old teacher who expounds upon how students have it so easy these days, versus “back in my days,” a lot of that has been removed with the use of technology.”
Three Things to Hate About Technology Use in the Classroom
1. Cheating the Thinking Process?
There is a part of me that feels that the use of technology allows my students to “cheat,” if you will. I remember copious amounts of practice with math addition, subtraction, and times tables as a young student. I had to learn long division by hand. A dictionary was a large book that oftentimes intimidated, and confused me, because it had multiple definitions that I needed to wade through in order to find the best match for whatever reading I was working with. If I was asked a question in science, my group often spent a few minutes debating back and forth what the correct answer might be, arguing over who had completed the reading and understood the concept from the text well enough to have the correct answer.
To sound like the grumpy old teacher who expounds upon how students have it so easy these days, versus “back in my days,” a lot of that has been removed with the use of technology. Dictionaries are now online, as are calculators. Even if a teacher asks a theoretical question, such as “Who was the greatest monarch during the Middle Ages,” it is possible for students to use a search engine and let AI give them an answer, rather than scroll through their memories and understandings of the content and reason out an answer. Are our students still thinking?
2. Lack of Lag Time to Think About the Possibilities
Generation Xers are really the last generation to be raised without technology at their disposal. If we think back far enough, surely my fellow Xers can remember life before cell phones, iPads, and PCs. As a result, not all answers were readily available and we often had to wait. Conversations between friends were either by notes secretly passed between desks, or else had to wait until breaks such as lunch, gym class, or after school. Our social media was the gossip(s) at our school, not social media.
The generations after us, for the most part, only know life with those devices. Gossip happens faster, igniting feuds quicker. There is no lag time between messages for students to let each other calm down and think situations through. Once a rumor starts, it spreads like wildfire. Even if we ban social media in our schools, kids can spread messages through school email and other methods. Honestly, many of our students are more savvy when it comes to this area of technology than we give them credit for.
3. Conversations are Ending
Has anyone else noticed that it appears as though as our students increase their engagement with technology, their engagement with each other in face to face situations decreases? While there are amazing teachers out there who know exactly how to keep students working together in groups that are actively speaking to each other, there are also others that struggle (myself included!). Often this results in classes with quiet students, not engaging with each other, and only focused on the task on the computer.
While there is definitely a time and a place for this, at times I feel like we are so stuck with our technology in the classroom, and even outside the classroom, that we cannot step away and teach our students how to be a group and complete work together as a team. The conversations are lessening. The skill of agreeing to disagree is lessening. Silos are being built within our classes and schools.
Tackling the Situation
So what do we do about this? If our students’ attention spans, critical thinking skills, and ability to engage in conversations with each other are starting to diminish, as many teachers believe is happening in the classroom, how do we combat this problem? How much weight and concern should we attribute to the downside of technology, when there are also so many positives?
I don’t know that there is a correct answer, or a perfect solution to this. I think it comes down to asking ourselves why we are asking our students to use their computers. Are they being used to enhance instruction and help with deeper learning, or are they simply replacing a worksheet?