Too Much Tech 05/07/2008
 

I have had a lot of excitement concerning technology in the classroom; I think it’s a beneficial tool that can enhance learning and keep students savvy to necessary skills and experiences for success. However, I think that there is a point where the use of technology can be too much. There are a number of ways that this can happen, and in the last semester, I have run into a couple of them. One stands out to me quite a bit.

The most notable one that strikes me is the use of technology in Bethel University’s Writing Center. For four semesters, I have been a tutor at in the AESC Office where the Writing Center is located. For three of the semesters, students who sought help could sign up for an appointment on a sheet that was posted in the hall outside the Writing Center. It was concise and clear. There was no confusion about whether or not an appointment slot was taken or whether it was available.

However, this semester technology has infiltrated the previously barbaric AESC Office: signing up for appointments in the Writing Center moved from a sheet on the wall to a website on the Bethel website. It took a little while for the tutors to get used to, but it’s pretty simple.

This semester has seen a horrifying decline in Writing Center appointments. I have had about five. Last semester hardly a night would go by without at least one or two students coming in. I blame the complication of a simple process. Despite the bonuses of automatically alerting professors when their students had been to see a writing tutor and despite the convenience of being able to schedule an appointment from across campus, no one seems to be signing up.

I think it because students do not know how to sign up for a shift. Before, scheduling an appointment was a three-second process. Now, not only does one have to log on, fill out a page of information, and deal with an e-mail confirming the appointment, but if one does not know the address of the website offhand, one has to go to the AESC Office to get the address! Where they could have just signed up on the wall before.

It just seems that sometimes technology can muddle things that maybe were efficient enough without being “improved.” Technology must be used when necessary, not in excess. Sorry, AESC Office.

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    One thing that I have been thinking about lately, mostly in relation to how I plan to teach, is how if college education is considered exceptional, shouldn't other forms of education strive to be so? When thinking about teaching English, I think of how some of my professors teach, and I think to myself, "I want to teach like this; this keeps me engaged." Their ways of teaching do not always incorporate technology, but so much of my college education has used different technologies. Thus, I think that in the same was that colleges and universities and higher education institutions use technologies to education, elementary, middle, and high schools should seek to do the same. Obviously the curriculum would have to be different, but the format could be similar.

    Not only would exposure to multiple technologies be more engaging for students in prep schools, but it would prepare them for post-secondary education, if that is what they are striving for. This is just another of the many benefits of using technology in the classroom.

    The number of technologies that I’ve experienced in college is incredible. If I do not limit my experience to class but expand it to include anything I’ve done in the past four years, or the past four years at Bethel, I feel like I have experienced almost everything. In the classroom, I have used word processing, the internet, power point, podcasts and videos, and online posting.

    Typing a paper on a computer is a simple task to the average college student, and I think that this particular technology is not that cutting edge. Most prep students are required to type papers, and there are usually classes on typing and computing. Internet access also seems like a given these days, although statistics show that many schools in which the achievement gap is high do not allow all students to experience the two aforementioned technologies. Power point is a third technology that the college student is probably keenly aware of. Everyone has had to make a presentation for class. I can recall having to do that in high school and middle school as well. It is a good skill to know how to use. Recently I also learned how to make a podcast and a video presentation as well, both of which are pretty simple. I had to make more than one video project in high school; I imagine that continues as usual in prep schools still. I do not recall posting or chatting online for any high school or middle school projects; however, there are upper-class prep schools that incorporate this type of technology.

    If students are to be prepared to face the world after secondary school, they need to know how to use the different available technologies. Unstructured use of these tools can turn out okay, but, unchecked and without proper training, sometimes technology can be misused or under-utilized. Thus, students need technology with regularity in their classes, whatever level they are at. The world is moving forward; the next generation must not be left behind.

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            It pleased me to find the National Education Technology Plan while browsing the other day. This document brings awareness to the fact that while most of society is utilizing technology to its advantages, education is not. This quote from Rod Paige, the U.S. Secretary of Education, sums the situation up quite nicely: “The way we organize schools and provide instruction is essentially the same as it was when our Founding Fathers went to school.” 

          Incorporating technology in the classroom is important, and I am happy to see that it is not just a concern that teachers in schools across the country have. The fact that there is a national committee looking into the matter and arguing for the cause is excellent. One section of the National Education Technology Plan that interested me were the success stories. 

          One successful example of a school district manipulating technology came from Chugach, Alaska. The school had the lowest scores in the state and had had only one student graduate from college in twenty-six years. The school started having its students use the internet and other technologies that emphasized real-life skills and situations. The school’s scores in the national average rose from the 28th percentile to the 71st percentile. 

          Another section of the plan made me aware that not only do students benefit from innovation and technology, but teachers do as well. I myself have used a ton of computer equipment and many programs both in practicum and in student teaching. I used the aforementioned Smart Board to display videos from the internet and power points that I’d gleefully constructed. The technology that saved me the most time, however, was that of the online grade book. Both schools that I student taught at had unique ways to catalog student scores on the staff website. This put recording the scores in a book to shame. Each time I entered a score, the children’s grades were computed to reflect new grades. 

          Along with this, parents can get involved with their kids much, much easier. Since both of the schools had student grades online, parents could access the scores at home and check up to make sure their child was performing optimally. Also at both schools, parents e-mailed the teacher and I once they’d seen low scores; they often inquired about what they could do to help their kid or what the student needed to do to improve his or her grade. I usually said bribery, but neither district thought that that was funny.

 

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Smart Board 02/11/2008
 

    One technology that I think has a positive impact on education is the Smart Board. For more professional information, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_board. This tool is basically an overhead projector on steroids. It has taken what Power Point did and took it a step further. The projector is hooked up to the teacher’s computer; an image of the computer’s screen is projected onto what at first glance appears to be a normal whiteboard. However, the projected image is interactive. It functions as the computer screen: the teacher can click on different icons, go on the internet, type a word document, and complete any task on that computer from right up in front of the classroom. For those who sometimes just want to use the old-fashioned chalkboard, Smart Board comes with a program that allows the user to write with a variety of different colored markers.

    Smart Board allows the teacher to operate from the front of the room the entire time. Movies can be played, websites can be viewed, and diagrams can be drawn, all from right in at the front of the classroom. A whole lesson can be planned and left on the desktop to be taught. The Smart Board comes with speakers on each side of the screen.

    There are a few possible negative aspects. There is a button on the Smart Board controller that freezes the current computer screen on the projector screen, at which point the instructor can do other activities on the computer without the viewing audience seeing said activities. However, if one forgets to freeze the screen or turn off the projector, everything that is being done on the computer is visible to the entire class. I once had to open an e-mail attachment for a lesson, and while I was doing so I noticed that my inbox contained an e-mail with three different obscene words in the subject heading.

    Another downfall, as with anything in the classroom, is that the students might use and abuse the technology. Students can tamper with this expensive technology. They can disrupt lesson plans, write inappropriate stuff on the screen, access files, and visit nasty sites on the internet. In front of the entire class, mind you. But that is a risk that anything in the classroom undergoes.
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    Beware, I will defend anything educational.

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    Education in Technology: Brief Podcast
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    Technology in Education Podcast: Student Experience
    (The file you want is called "podcast all vocal wav"; just realize the filename is not very indicative).

    For a living, breathing example of how technology can be used in the classroom, download the file "Technology in the Classroom!" below to get a glimpse of what this site is actually addressing:

    Technology in the Classroom!
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    I took a survey among students Bethel University concerning their experiences with technology in high school classes. Download the file "Survey Results" below to view...the survey results.

    Survey Results
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