I once had a teacher in high school who told me a teacher’s job was to take students from where they were and bring them to a higher plain, higher even, if possible, to the plain the teacher was on. I didn’t quite get that when I was younger and just trying to figure out how to reach students but today I do understand that when we reach out to our students we are offering whatever expertise we have as a gift which we need to understand that they may choose to take in part or whole or not at all. I also now know that I am not better or smarter or even more educated then most of my students, that they, indeed, have life experiences and both formal and informal education I will never have from which they draw a frame of reference to include, again, in part or whole or not at all, whatever I offer them in the classroom. Selling the importance of what I am trying to teach them is one of the great dilemnas. But here I digress.
Every teacher who cares about his or her students struggles with how best to present and convey the information students need to take from the class in both an effective and efficient way. We draw on tools of the trade and often borrow from other professions to help us engage our students in the educational process. But often we also rely too heavily on the tools to do our jobs for us. Several students approached me one day after class to express their frustration about another class they were all taking at the same time they were taking my English 201 course. They complained that the instructor they had used Power Point in virtually every class, reading the Power Point, expounding on the Power Point, and testing based on the Power Point presentations. My gawd, how disheartening for the students. All I could do was remind them of the short time they would need to put up with this and that in life sometimes we just need to hang on to get through.
Today the big move is to use technology to help us reach our students where they are at. Their and our lives are innundated with technological advances. My partner and I are avid campers who love to leave the hectic pace of city life to reconnect with a far more natural world. We are tent-campers and except for carrying cell phones for emergencies and electric lanterns for inside the tent, we leave most technology behind when we camp. But in the past few years when we walk the dogs in the evenings around the campground, we increasingly see people chatting away on cell phones, playing on their computers, plugging into iPods. and even using generator powered dishwashers set on the picnic tables. I shake my head and return to stare mindlessly and joyfully into the campfire while listening to crickets, frogs, and the occassional pack of young coyotes on the prowl for adventure.
In the classroom I do use technology, Power Point, Internet sites, visualizers, Blackboard, films, even iPod recordings fed through the computer to stimulate writing or make a point about literature. It is a tool to help engage my syudents in the learning process. That is also why I want to learn more about what my students use to learn when what they are learning for their own pleasure or enhancement (Please don’t tell my students they actually choose to learn stuff on their own. Some would be horrified). The point is all these technologies are TOOLS. But tools must fit the project. Because I bought myself a new drill driver which is super cool, high powered, and really advanced does not mean I will use it on every project or even most projects I work on in my home. I will use it when the time and project is appropriate.
In one of the articles I read this week the instructor of statistics is trying to find ways to use Twitter to engage her students in learning statistics. WHY? Select the tool and then the project? Engaging students is about finding the right tools to get the job done. The more tools in your arsenal, the better able you are to find one or a combination to get the job done. But to force the use of a technology just to use it to engage your students is ingenious and the students know it immediately, particularly if you are uncomfortable with the tool in the first place.
Two other thoughs come to mind as I write this. One very important lesson I learned from teaching small children, which I continue to do even today, is variety and change of teaching strategies is critical to all learners. The average adult attention span is between 7 and 9 minutes. We can’t possibly teach in 9 minute increments but we can be aware that no one strategy, technological or not, will engage our students for long periods of time. Variety, interactive teaching strategies work best overall but even these get tedious if overused.
I recently read an article about technology and teaching and the author made one very good point. Our students, because of TV, videoes and repetitive type computer games have become paasive learners (although this has always been true to some extent). Technology has often, not always, made getting the information they seek too easy, too accessible, too easily forgettable. They listen to technology passively; they watch technolgy passively; they encounter technology passively. By using technological advances indiscriminately, we will only reinforce the passivity our students are often prone to already.
TOOLS for learning? ABSOLUTELY! Indiscriminate and uncritical use of technology in place of personal and caring teaching strategies? NOT IN MY CLASSROOM!
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