My friend, John Carver, a prominent education leader in Iowa, Skyped me the other day just to kick around some ideas in education that he was considering. John and I often have discussions about education. Of course my favorite thing about our discussions is that John often likes what I have to say. As always, things came around to the role of technology in education. John has been a leader in the 1:1 laptop movement in Iowa schools.
During the course of our discussion we both agreed that there is a need to clarify and agree on quite a few of the things that many of us take for granted. These are things that we all assume are commonly understood in education. The most obvious being an agreement on what the goal of education is. It has been my experience in my observations that if you ask 50 educators, “what is the goal of education?”, there will be as many as 49 different answers. Of course point of view has a great deal to do with one’s definition. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents would each approach it from their own perspective, but that would be true of anything.
There is no subject however, that this is more obviously less definable than when we attempt to define technology. Ironically, many believe that the definition is universally agreed upon. I often argue that when it comes to using technology that there is not a generation gap, but a learning gap. I do believe that. The idea of what anyone considers technology however, is very different depending on a person’s age. This may be a reason for a slow adoption of technology as a tool for learning. I have written about this before, inspired by a Sir Ken Robinson video. The idea being that, what we consider to be technology, is totally dependent on when it was introduced into our lives.
There is a book and a movie that immediately come to mind that underscore this: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; and Back to The Future. In both stories the main characters introduced tools from their culture that were no longer considered technology, to a culture unfamiliar with them, and therefore astounded at their existence as well as their capabilities. That is a concept that we easily understand, as long as the future is brought back into the past. It gets tricky trying to apply the same idea from the present moving forward.
Let us consider the automobile. When it comes to travel today, beyond using our feet, the automobile is probably our transportation of choice. Rarely do we refer to it or even think about the car as technology, because it has always been with us. We were born after that technology was invented, so it has become a tool of our everyday life. We don’t research its worth or try to decide whether people should use it or not. It is here to stay and evolve without another thought other than how to make it better or cheaper. The same is probably true of TV’s and Phones. We have them. We use them. We always expect that they will be with us in some form.
Now let’s address computers. Much of our adult population can readily remember when this technology was introduced. They have a memory of the first PC’s and Mac’s. They can track memories of rotary phones, princess phones, car phones, and mobile phones. These were all invented within their lifetime. Most adults knew where they were when “Al Gore invented the Internets”. This, to them, is technology. They reserve the right to use it, or not, since they know the benefits of what came before. Not too many are holding on to rotary phones, but I have not yet given up my land line (My Choice).This attitude accounts for the experience of many, many educators today. They grew up and learned without technology. It was invented in their lifetime so they have a choice to use it or stay with the tried and true of days gone by.
Now let’s look at the student perspective. There isn’t one kid today in our modern culture that doesn’t have access to a computer. Most kids today live with cellphones, if not Smartphones specifically. If you don’t know it already, a smartphone is simply a complex computer with phone capabilities.What many adults don’t get is that computers and smartphones are not considered technology by kids. They are not in awe of the capabilities of these tools. They expect it. It is part of their world. Educators should not be so arrogant as to think they have the ability to decide whether or not kids can use these tools for learning. The kids do it with, or without adult permission. Any educator has the right to choose to live in a cave, however, they do not have the right to drag their students in there with them.
As long as these technologies exist and continue to move forward, we as educators have an obligation to teach responsible and thoughtful use of these tools. We as educators have a responsibility to be relevant in what and how we teach. I do not know if kids’ brains are wired differently as a result of all that is new in technology. I do know that what astounds me with these tools, is thought to be expected by students. They sleep with their Smartphones. Just ask them. Their perspective to this technology is the perspective we must deal with, and not our own. Our perspective becomes more irrelevant each day.
I love this video. If you have any doubts of what I have just said, watch this video. This is how a one year old approaches something that we all take for granted, a magazine. The child’s perspective however, is one that assumes the very technology that many adults have yet to accept. Learn from this small, but tech-savvy, one-year-old. Click here to view the video.
I now will send this post to my friend, John Carver to use any way he sees fit. I welcome you to do the same. Of course your comments are welcomed.
I ask my undergrad classes this question on the first day of every semester: what is technology? we discuss operative definitions and usually settle on something that is akin to: inventions or innovations intended to “solve problems and extend human capabilities.” (quote from ITEA definition). I often say technology allows us to extend animal capabilities, also (ever see a dog with its hind legs on a cart?) but for argument’s sake, we leave it at the above.
Everyday teaching technologies are the tools we use to connect with our colleagues, students, communities, friends, social circles, et al for learning…these include pencils, tweets, paper airplanes, and Skype sessions. We gather, assimilate, and disseminate information via technology; it’s become utterly necessary for modern education. so, please, unblock youtube. i wanna watch Tom’s video! 🙂
Very well stated and very well presented by our future generation!! As adults we need to embrace the fact that our children have tools at their disposable and learn how we can help educate them using these tools.
None of us would ever give a two year old a sharp knife, or a bottle of rat poison. And we all would have the same reasons, the risk that they child would get hurt far outweighs the positive possibilities.
We make those decisions with all technologies. Many of those decisions are easy, but some have shades of gray. I think that you and I would tend to give more freedom, even if there is some potential harm, but I also think we understand when others are more conservative.
And I also think that we vehemently disagree with anyone who bars all technology that hasn’t been certifies as 100% risk free.
Tom,
This is a very thought provoking and well stated argument. I wonder what some of our staff would think about “living on a cave.” Unfortunately, there are many days I need a spelunkers hat to navigate our halls in our school. All I can hope for us that more of my colleagues read posts like yours and begin to evolve their philosophies.
Thanks for your insight as always, and say hello to John for me!
Don
It is all about the hype cycle and where your device is. Cliche time here we are all on the continuum without the trend setters and early adopters emerging technology would never get used. Clay Shirky says in one of talks “the devices don’t get socially useful until they get technology boring”
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Great, thought provoking blog post, wonderful video clip!
A heated Christmas conversation began with my father-in-law saying, “We don’t need technology. It’s a waste.” Rather than point out his x-box habit, I asked him to define technology. We finally got him around to a definition that would encompass pencils as technology – and he needs those.
“How do you define technology” is a powerful question. Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Tom! I am a 4th year education student at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. I am currently enrolled in an Introduction to Computers in the Classroom course where we are encouraged to experiment with all kinds of technology that we may or may not decide to use in the classroom. I often find it mind boggling when I stop and think about the ways technology has changed, just in my lifetime. And the things that are new and fascinating to me that are common place to my 5-year-old sister. If you have time, you should check out my blog. It is all about my experiences with technology as I am introduced to new, and repurpose old, tools.
Can’t disagree with you at all Tom. My 3 year old uses our iPhone and iPad regularly with no help from his mother or I. Amazing to watch him use these tools the last 2 years.
A discussion along the lines of “What is technology?” came up in a class this year – they weren’t very happen with an unplanned comment I had made about ‘rocks being the first technology’ or something like that … they were also not very convinced by my pointing out ‘it’s called the “Stone Age” for a reason or pulling up the wikipedia on technology to help make my case … that aside over, I appreciated the gist of this one as it’s one of the big lessons I learned from my students that I learned this year: I’m officially old (embrace it). They were born when I was in high school and have no concept of the pre-computer, pre-mobile phone days. As soon as they get a little bored or even stop making the intentional effort to focus in some cases, out comes the phone as entertainment and/or escape is carried in the pocket of almost every high school student now. Remember when we had to write notes (the illicit kind) or doodle … well now you text or “Draw Something”
I enjoyed your article and plan to share it with my peers. I have to say that the video did not prove that a magazine was broken. All you saw was a darling one year old interacting with her environment and learning that objects are different. It would not be wise to read more into that scenario. She liked the object that moved and flashed because she was not capable of reading or connecting thoughts to the pictures in the magazine.
I agree that technology, even if most people don’t realize it as such, is exceptionally broad and encompasses everything from rocks to iPods. I like to describe certain technologies—i.e. the ones that already exist in our formative years—as becoming “transparent.” We use them without question; their technologicity (if I can invent a word) has receded into the background.
The question posed, “what is the goal of education,” is an interesting and important one of which I began my recently accepted article to Kappa Delta Pi Record fostering the question “what is the purpose of school?” Agreed that each teacher and respective individual concerned with education will have a different answer. As highlighted, I do believe teachers have a responsibility and an increasing expectation to provide their students with learning opportunities that reflect the use of technological tools in the classroom. More specifically with the flood of software applications, touch screen technologies, smart phones, etc. that students should be utilizing the tools of greater society inside their classroom walls and not just outside of them. The issue of teacher training always arises when talking about technology. I think it is becoming more evident that teachers have another responsibility when teaching content – to be able to leverage such with relevant technological tools and not just use technology for technology’s sake but to guide students’ learning with the tools that are greatly impacting society.
Dear Mr. Whitby,
I really enjoy reading your blog and in particular the article, “What is Technology?” really struck me as interesting. I very much agree with your idea that when teachin the your generation, one must utilize that generations technology and try to force education through means of outdated technology. My name is Ryan Griffin, I work with StraighterLine. We’re higher education innovators and are interested in sharing some content between our sites. Blogs, articles, etc. If that is something you would be interested in doing please let me know. Check out some of our coverage here: http://www.straighterline.com/press/news.cfm. Even if you’re just interested in a one-time piece we’d be happy to share our opinions with you on the future of higher education. We think education is poised for some real changes because of the financial aid crisis, rising tuition, and increased use of online tools.
Sincerely,
Ryan Griffin