Technology and Education: Opportunities and Challenges

A middle school principal requested I say something about technology and education.

“I look forward to reading your new blog with great
interest. One possible topic would be how educators navigate the promise
of technology and the impact (positive and troubling) of email on student
connections at school. “

We seem to be caught trying to catch up with a train that has already started to leave the station. Our efforts to keep up with technology are frustrating in part because as we chase technology it continues to move forward. Students inevitably know more about technology than adults and are always finding ways to push the envelope. The costs associated with getting the technology that our schools and homes need are skyrocketing.

There is no consensus on what types of technology students need, and what types of instructional strategies are best for learning in this technology age. As a result technology in education is all over the place, with no leadership carefully guiding the process and figuring out what is best for kids and learning.

I came across an interesting set of articles about this subject this week. In many ways the themes of the articles capture the opportunities and challenges associated with technology and education.

An Education week article describes the instructional trend of using cell phones and pda’s for assignments, classroom demonstrations, projects, etc. Students use this technology for everything from simple data collection to creating podcasts and web pages

On the other side of the argument came an article on MSNBC that reported on a group of teenagers facing child pornography charges for “sexting”. Some teens had taken nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves on their mobile phones and were sending the pictures to some other teens at school. The teens were discovered because one teen was busted violating the schools cell phone policy.

There you have it, the opportunities and challenges of technology in education.  Now what do we do?

Opportunities

• One thing we could do is more research into successful models of integrating technology into classroom instruction. There are 3 general approaches that that some of the top schools are using that have impressed me. I think these are approaches educators, parents, and caretakers can learn from.

1. Media Literacy – A decade ago teaching children 21^st century skills meant sending email and web browsing. Today if you don’t know how to access and use information from a variety of media (web, video, news, books, audio, etc) by 5^th or 6^th grade you are behind. That is how we get and use information today. Librarians have become incredible media literacy specialists, and many teachers are also emphasizing this in their classrooms. To keep up with their kids, parents should become familiar with how to access information from various media as well. This would add another resource outside of the classroom.
2. Integrating Technology – It’s great if kids know how to use the various technology tools available. Taking it to the next level involves applying media literacy to classroom instruction and assignments. Adults can create an engaging learning environment by utilizing different ways for students to learn, apply, and produce using a variety of media.
3. Project Based Learning – Some of the most dynamic classrooms I have seen utilize project based approaches. Done correctly students individually or in a group take ownership of their learning by completing projects utilizing a variety of media to research, produce, and present their work. Group work is particularly exciting because it simulates current work trends (how many of us work on teams). Students who are experts at Youtube become as valuable as the student who is good at presenting, etc.

Obviously successful approaches should lead to improved academic achievement. I am a big fan of High Tech High in California (www.hightechhigh.org). This school system was founded by 2 teachers from my hometown of Cambridge MA, and has enjoyed national recognition. Since 2000 High Tech High and its charter school network has been engaging students, improving academic achievement, and preparing students for the 21^st century.  Why recreate the wheel? Critically look at schools like this and work to incorporate best practice lessons learned.

Challenges

• Researching and developing hardware, software, and infrastructure that are education friendly and compatible. This is incredibly important for those who do program evaluation research in education. Teachers frequently complain about how frustrating it is to navigate grading and comment software. It would not be hard to find a teacher with a story about how the system crashed just as they finished their last comment and all was lost. I have worked with schools where there is plenty of data, but some of it stored on a word document, some on a spreadsheet, some in a notebook, etc. There must be a better way to collect, store, and access student data. Some schools swear by education management software packages like Powerschool, but compared to the sophisticated software in other fields, education management software has a long way to go.
• Education management software should include easy to navigate options for parents to access their child’s progress, and communicate with school officials,.Many independent and some public schools have some form of this, allowing parents to access the schools website, get email alerts, etc.
• As for schools providing email and internet access, I have 2 suggestions.

1. Make sure that these privileges are for educational purposes and tied to student learning. It is frustrating to see students using these privileges for gaming or social networking at school.
2. Schools need to make sure they can provide the necessary monitoring and safeguards for student safety

• Working together, adults can provide guidance and oversight of this exciting, but unregulated world of the internet. With every site like Youtube that kids can access, there is also Youporn which is potentially as easy to access. Parents can learn from schools that use software and filters that limit access to certain sites, monitors students use and the sites they visit. There are several software options that do this for parents (such as We-Blocker, Content Protect, Net Nanny, etc). Parents need to make decisions about how they will deal with the lure of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. There is certainly the need to keep kids safe from child predators, cyber-bullies, etc. There is also the need to pay attention to the social and emotional impact of internet/technology addiction. I highly recommend PBS/Frontline’s “Growing Up Online” (available for free online), and the “Megan Meier Story” (on YouTube) for more on this.

Programs and parents should strive for balance.  Kids (and adults for that matter) can get absorbed by technology. A pediatrician I know reassures new parent fears by telling them that kids can tolerate a lot of things. The key is moderation. Make sure that a technology focus at school or home is balanced with other activities and interests. An approach to consider is for every hour a kid spends in front of a screen (computer, video game, television, etc) they need to spend the same amount of time doing something else (social activity, recreation, reading, etc).