The Persistent Appeal of Technology in Learning

The Persistent Appeal of Technology in Learning

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Framed by the story of Frankenstein, in which a scientist invents a somewhat human creation by stitching together parts of actual humans, blogger Terry Heick illustrates the irony that Education loves Technology.  Because human beings love technology, and because educators are human beings, it reasons that teachers would try to find ways to incorporate the technology they use in their everyday lives into their teaching.  "No matter what their titles, educators and related decision-makers are human  beings first, and the devices and potential that fascinate them at home also catch their eye for use in the classroom," says Heick.

Heick points out three goals of technology, and he pairs them with three goals of education in an effort to show the marriage between the two elements.

First, technology's function of "Reach" allows education to use it on a broad "Scale."  The sheer accessibility that students have to information, and the myriad tools available to teachers, allow them to tailor their delivery mechanisms to meet the varying needs of their students.

Second, the bells and whistles that technology can provide lead to engagement and enthusiasm on the part of learners.  The various apps that can make learning fun have educational implications that rival the high degree of interest provided by technology in the first place.  If it's a video, or if it makes a sound, or if it requires interaction, or if it simulates, it catches our interest.  That kind of interest can be harnessed to fully engage students in a learning activity, far more so than lecture or note-taking.

Finally, just as the interface of any tablet or smartphone can be individualized for personal use, so to can this level of individualization be used to impact student learning.  Education has finally embraced the idea that all students can learn, but not in the say way and not on the same day.  Technology provides a degree of individualization that textbooks or traditional learning tools cannot.  From differentiating instruction to regulating pace of learning, the implications for technology in education are innumerable.  

Heick finishes by pointing out that technology can provide the spark, the jump start, which takes "the standards, PLC data, research-based strategies, literacy efforts, digital media, assessments, socioeconomic realities, project-based learning, and curriculum maps-- and fuse it all into a manageable and able machine that will take off on its own, every piece functioning as it should, the entire, impossibly complex system operating as a single, well-oiled entity."

Just like Frankenstein.  

The list in Heick's conclusion, from standards to curriculum maps, is what overwhelms me in my own position.  As head of the English Dept., a passionate and able group of seven, it falls to us to design a curriculum that is balanced, aligned, relevant, rigorous, and most importantly leads to higher student achievement.  If technology can aide in that goal, all the better.