I came across a quote about technology integration that really spoke to me: "Lead with the learning, and not with the tools. Always."- Tim Wilhelmus- education blogger and innovator. In the same article, my favorite blogger, Bill Ferriter, added, "Technology alone isn't revolutionary. Technology just makes it possible for teachers and students to do revolutionary things. Our choices about technology need to start and end with our beliefs about learning. Forgetting to put learning first in ANY conversation about education is a recipe for failure."
So, with these thoughts in mind, I realize that any innovations that I promote must come from my understanding about what Ashbury believes about learning (and teaching). I look to our first Core Value: Academic Excellence. We tell the world that we believe that, "Our challenging, broad-based academic program, which promotes critical thinking and creativity, prepares students for success in university and in life." For me, the key words (phrases) here are "critical thinking," "creativity," and "prepares students for success in university and in life." If this is truly what Ashbury believes about learning, then my mission and my commitment must be to find innovative tools that promote critical thinking, creativity and prepare students for life after Ashbury.
What do you think? What are Ashbury's beliefs about learning (and teaching)? Have I missed anything? I would love to hear from you.
Should We Renew Discussions About Becoming a Laptop School?
I am aware that there are divided opinions about whether or not Ashbury should become a laptop school. I am also aware of many of the arguments for and against. Frankly, I believe that both sides make excellent points. However, I have three questions:
1. Not to belabor an aforementioned point, but how does our current stance on not being a laptop school support our beliefs about learning? To be honest, I don't think it does. I would love to entertain arguments, however.
2. Would becoming a laptop school promote our beliefs about learning (and teaching)? Personally, I know that I cannot imagine attempting to do my job, or continue my recreational life for that matter, without my technology tools. If I am asked to create anything, to look at an issue critically or simply share my ideas, I start automatically with my preferred technologies. I am of the age of the "Digital Immigrants," and this is my thinking about technology as tool. Imagine what our students (Digital Natives) must feel when asked to create, synthesize, critique or share without their technology tools?
3. Are we really in control of this decision anyway? As many of you know, Andy Moore has been using Moodle as a course management tool for sometime. He has also been using their Browser Lockdown feature to provide assessments online. He recently sent me this data:
To date, the largest % of students using the school laptops for any test has been 50%. The smallest has been 20%. Generally speaking, between ½ and ¾ of Ashbury students are currently using their own computers (80% Macs) to write tests in his courses. He also goes on to say, "I’m guessing that had I collected this kind of data as recently as 2010, the number of students able to use their own laptops would have been 25% at the most. It seems to me that we are in the midst of a fairly rapid shift whereby students are using their computers as important in-class learning tools and that we will soon be a laptop school whether we mean to be or not. I see this as a very positive development since I am getting very close to becoming paperless in my class and improving my pedagogy in the process."
SO...are we already a laptop school and we are just not reaping the "benefits" of advertising that we are a laptop school and being able to have some input or control over the types of laptops used by our students? I welcome your thoughts and ideas! Let's chat!
Interesting questions:
ReplyDeleteQ: How does our current stance on not being a laptop school support our beliefs about learning?
A: To paraphrase Tim Wilhelmus, whom you quote, lead with teaching not with technology. A pencil in the hands of an English student may produce poetry. A pencil in the hands of a Math student may produce calculus. Technology for the sake of technology produces imitation not creative thinking. Students learn best using the most appropriate tools, sometimes that tool is a computer or a piece of modern technology.
Alan Cooper in his landmark book: "The Inmates are running the asylum" asked: what do you get when you cross a computer with X? X being any tool at all. The answer, a computer! The computer completely changes the relationship to the work being done. Not being a laptop school is a vote for flexibility in teaching and the wise use of technology where it is needed. Give students laptops, and teachers the flexibility to choose when to use them work best.
Q. Would becoming a laptop school promote our beliefs about learning (and teaching)?
A. It is tempting to suggest that 21st century learning is the laptop. Certainly students use computers to complete all kinds of school projects. Sometimes the tool enhances the learning process, other times it merely changes it. Are we more effective teachers and learners with computers? Perhaps we are simply more effective communicators, more organized, and thus more likely to be present to the ongoing teaching and learning happening both in and out of the classroom.
The 21st century learner however is not a laptop learner, but a communications "junky" using text, audio and video to communicate with a diverse population over the Internet.
I used the word "junky" to illicit visions of addiction without direction. Many students are "plugged into" the Internet, and we do (as a school) have a responsibility to discuss bias, propaganda and other modes of misinformation and how to be "safe" when operating online with our students who for all their being "digital native" status are still children with little practice at sifting out truth.
Blended learning should be the goal, not the laptop. The laptop is simply the gateway most conducive to interacting with the online learning community at the present time.
As teachers we need to be aware of the options we have in the classroom. Provided laptops are seen in this light then school wide adoption does not pose a problem. Some courses and curriculum work well in a blended environment, others only marginally well. The "wise use" of technology, a phrase adopted by St. Andrew's College in Ontario, an idea likely originating from Cincinnati Country Day School in the states has worked well. Give teachers tools, and let them choose how to use them wisely.
Q. Are we really in control of this decision anyway?
A. Yes and no. Teachers should choose which technologies meet their pedagogical objectives and when to use those technologies. That goes for paper and pen to laptops.
No, teachers will likely find more and more digital natives using laptops for learning and many affluent students will own their own laptop anyway.
In specific courses, like Computer Science, special software needs to be installed that may be operating system dependent. Sometimes these applications are very expensive on an individual basis making computer labs a cost effective model for curriculum with intensive computer / technology use.