Cathy Swan's List: Technology in School

• acquiring problem-solving skills
• supports that technology can provide for acquiring complex concept
• many innovators perceived the dramatic effects that technology can have on students' interest in class activities and their sense of their own capabilities.

  • Although motivation is often perceived as "entertainment" and serious educators don't feel a need to entertain, technology in class teaches kids to evaluate and choose their own resources, choose the technology that best suits the need, create a "mash-up" of several technologies that work together, share their resources with classmates and teachers, collaborate with the outer world and experts in the field, construct their own meaning, and produce a research-based product that is typically more original than a research paper. Students learn to be metacognitive when the teacher does less talking and more coaching.
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• future in which both higher education and the world of work would be infused with technology. These educators argue that schools have a responsibility to give students--and especially students from low-income homes--the confidence and skills in using such technology that they will need after graduation.

  • Technology is ubiquitous and can no longer be an individual teacher's choice. Adults with no technology skills are not getting hired. Students don't have tech skills pre-programmed into their brains. They simply don't know what they don't know. it is our responsibility to teach them those skills which have truly become life skills.
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• I don't care what field they're in, be it factory worker, office worker, medicine or whatever. [There is no place where technology will not be used.] It's getting harder and harder to get jobs. You want your kids to get a leg up. It's becoming a necessary ingredient.

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• rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress.
• active role

  • This says it well.
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• The teacher is no longer the center of attention as the dispenser of information, but rather plays the role of facilitator, setting project goals and providing guidelines and resources, moving from student to student or group to group, providing suggestions and support for student activity. As students work on their technology-supported products, the teacher rotates through the room, looking over shoulders, asking about the reasons for various design choices, and suggesting resources that might be used.

  • This is difficult for traditional teachers who believe they have mastered their curriculum. They also fear that students can't discover all the information needed to pass the test. As such, giving kids time to work with computers is often deemed to be "extra" and therefore difficult to "fit in". Teachers who "get it" know that kids learn the concepts better by choosing their own path. If they're bored, it's because they chose poorly and will continue searching for an angle that grabs them.
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• stimulate so much active mental work on the part of students
• peer coaches--students who are technology savvy and eager to share their knowledge with others.

  • I recommend to teachers that they take a risk and say to the kids (as I do), "Today we're going to work on a new technology. I'll show you what I know about it and then over the coursde of this week, you can teach me all the good stuff you figure out. As a class, we'll learn it together while you discover the answer to the project question that you're researching."

  • I have had brilliant teachers refuse to use a technology that they haven't personally mastered. I understand mastery of content because as a French teacher, I was a master of my subject - language, culture, literature, history. But with technology, if you wait to master a specific technology, you'll never use it. I have been working with PowerPoint for 10 years and had to research to answer a teacher's "how-to" question just last week.
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• Teachers and students are sometimes surprised at the level of technology-based accomplishment displayed by students who have shown much less initiative or facility with more conventional academic tasks:

  • Last year, we turned an entire class attitude around with new, exciting technologies PLUS the kids learned how to learn and think. The teacher's plan to deal with these disruptive students was to make the class read and write during class. I suggested we have fun and learn instead. That teacher hasn't stopped having fun and learning with her students since that day. She - and her classes - have discovered the motivational power of technology and choice! AND, her students can also pass the tests that other classes are taking.
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• The kids that don't necessarily star can become the stars. [with technology]

  • I saw it happen. It's differentiation at its best!
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• a greater willingness to write or to work on computational skills.
• student satisfaction with the immediate feedback
• the sense of accomplishment and power
• enhances their self-esteem and makes them excited about coming to school.
• It's something they want to master.
• Compared to conventional classrooms with their stress on verbal knowledge and multiple-choice test performance, technology provides a very different set of challenges and different ways in which students can demonstrate what they understand

  • Differntiation happens as each student has the ability and permission to choose his or her path to acquiring the knowledge needed to succeed.
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• a venue in which a wider range of students can excel.
• led to increases in students' (and often teachers') sense of self worth.
• more confidence in the kids
• empowering and exciting
• Students clearly take pride in being able to use the same computer-based tools employed by professionals.

  • We have a responsibility to teach students the responsible and ethical use of tools used by professionals. Many of these are web-based, collaborative tools that enable users to work with partners and experts nearby and around the world.
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• Students, even at the elementary school level, are able to acquire an impressive level of skill with a broad range of computer software

  • We have to be especially careful not to keep special ed students from technology. Many of them find an enormous sense of empowerment and can handle it as well as many non-SPED kids. There should be no ONE decision made for an entire body of SPED kids. It has to be a one-at-a-time decision. Differentiation. My Down syndrome student produced twice as many magazine articles as his less disabled SPED classmates. He just loved it, "got it" and wanted to do more!! It was exciting to see.
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• Although the specific software tools in use will likely change before these students enter the world of work, the students acquire a basic understanding of how various classes of computer tools behave and a confidence about being able to learn to use new tools that will support their learning of new software applications.

  • For this reason, we don't believe in choosing a specific technology that we mandate for the school. (For example, one specific blog or one specific wiki.) Instead, we have defined "Adaptability" as one of our ICT competencies and encourage teachers and students to experiment with everything that's out there. We further encourage them to let us (the ICT team) know what they've found and what they've learned so we can spread it around!
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• nearly unanimous also in reporting that students were able to handle more complex assignments and do more with higher-order skills (see examples) because of the supports and capabilities provided by technology.

  • This is a really big advantage of technology. Again, it points to differentiation. Each student will stretch to his or her highest capacity with technology, but we also have to stretch those who are timid by teaching them skills to enable them. That's why a classroom teacher shouldn't undertake a project that integrates technology without the support of the technology integration teacher who might be able to suggest tools to make the project more powerful as well as supporting students who may need it. When the classroom teacher can't answer the tech questions, they are less likely to repeat the experience or use other technologies. The TI can support the technology while the teacher supports the curriculum and content.
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• increased inclination on the part of students to work cooperatively and to provide peer tutoring.

  • It is clear that collaboration must be explicitly taught as a skill set. Students hear collaboration but their first question is "But are we being graded separately?" The answer should be NO because the reality of collaborative work in the professional world is that if your team fails, you failed with them. But most teachers say "Yes, your grade is your grade and I'll know if your partner doesn't do his/her part and will grade him/her separately." That is a real 21st century professional skill that will be our biggest challenge.
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• Students who have mastered specific computer skills generally derive pride and enjoyment from helping others.
• the public display and greater legibility of student work creates an invitation to comment.

  • When students know that their classmates and perhaps the greater world will read and comment, they are more thoughtful before publishing.
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• Multiple media give students choices about how best to convey a given idea (e.g., through text, video, animation).

  • CHOICE matters!
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• peers' reactions to their presentations, appear to support a greater awareness of audience needs and perspectives.
• they have the capability to produce more professional-looking products and the tools to manipulate the way information is presented, students in many technology-using classes are reportedly spending more time on design and audience presentation issues

  • Emphasis on word "professional".
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• a potential downside was also noted by a few teachers. It is possible for students to get so caught up in issues such as type font or audio clips that they pay less attention to the substantive content of their product.

  • Note: the suggestions following this sentence won't work for high school. Teachers simply have to give students an "order" of operations.

  • This is where the teacher's guidance is crucial. Students love the design elements and it is crucial that the teacher limit design time with kids working only on content and leaving design til the end.
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• Staff at several sites reported that the introduction of technology had put them into the position of being learners again

  • This is not necessarily a positive in the minds of all teachers.
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• Technology has the potential also to support a much greater degree of communication and collaboration between teachers and others outside the school walls.

  • Involving teachers in other districts, in other parts of the world as well as drawing in experts in the field are both essential to making the learning authentic. Every student should have the opportunity to contact experts in the field or others studying the same topic. Unfortunately, teachers see this as unnecessary and a potential time drain. The reality is that students who become accustomed to this sort of correspondance will be more proficient in their professional lives. We should therefore, make this part of every curriculum. (Even if only to contact authors or artists to ask permission to use their work.)
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