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Never Was About Technology?- Time to Focus on Learning?

June 17, 2009 Collaboration, Education, Learning 13 Comments

As I am attempting to grasp the magnitude of how to be/become/ grow into a piece of the puzzle that helps start (?)/develop and eventually complete a shift of our schools to better prepare and help students learn “TODAY”. (P.S. I am getting a little tired of the “21st century” label, since we are almost 10 years into that new century…),

I wonder… What makes the difference? Does Technology (Integration) really make the difference?

Don’t misunderstand… technology tools play a huge role …but…are they the deciding factor of making a difference? I remembered a quote of  Conor Bolton :

“poor teaching + technology = expensive poor teaching”

apple

While I was completing my Masters Degree in Instructional Technology, I was convinced that by helping teachers integrate technology into their lessons (doing the same thing…just with technology) would make the difference.

While I was a Technology Integration Facilitator, I was convinced that by co-teaching with classroom teachers, we would give students the opportunity to work with different media to extract/ share information and express themselves while not adding to the teacher work load of doing “one more thing”. We used technology tools to engage studentgs and activate THEIR way of thinking and learning while teaching the CURRENT curriculum and that would make the difference.

Now, I have arrived at a point in the process where I believe that it is not (never was) about technology. To make a difference, it has always been about good teaching, reflecting and focusing on (relevant?) student learning.

Ask yourself what happens to student learning when:

  • a teacher does not have a (teaching) plan that they are able/required to follow?
  • the “plan” is outdated/has been used for the last 5 years?
  • teachers (across grade levels and subject areas) teach in isolation of each other?
  • teachers have forgotten, are not interested in, don’t have time for, or are not supported in their own learning?
  • collaboration and communication among administrators and teachers in order to pursuit of the common goal called student learning is out of sync or non existent?
  • teaching means covering lessons, units, objectives and standards and does not involve teaching for understanding?

How  (in what capacity/role) can we best make a difference in helping students learn?

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Currently there are "13 comments" on this Article:

  1. Mike Gwaltney says:

    Here, here. Very well said.

  2. We can easily make a difference by helping students find their own connection points to the work at hand. Not a connection to their grades, but rather, a connection to their lives. Shakespeare continues to be taught because it is timeless. True enough, but the kids need to make the connection to their own lives. Not because the teacher is cool or easy, but rather because the students can see the implications in their own lives. Essential questions can help…but they are not the full answer. Technology is just another tool that does need to fit in with the other dusty tools.

  3. Lori Sheldon says:

    Amen! It is all about good teaching/learning. “It’s not about the technology..” has been my motto and I am a tech integrator helping k-12th grade teachers. Some of the tools we have at our fingertips can certainly enable collaboration, higher level thinking, and so forth, but, without an up to date, standards aligned curriculum, followed by everyone… and the other factors you described… we are lost. Thanks for raising this topic!

  4. Gail Potratz says:

    I have a framed saying on my office wall – It’s not about the technology; it’s about the learning.
    It’s been an evolution towards this point in my understanding, but once I realized this, everything changed for me.

    I applaud your remarks.
    Twitter: gailpotratz
    I follow you…….

  5. your post comes at the best time for our school. we are assessing how teachers use technology in their classes. brilliant post

  6. *hats off*
    I love nagging. I am passionate about what I do and HOW I do it. When I get a luke-warm (or worse ) response from my colleagues about new ICT tools they could integrate I try to take it well but in truth I just don’t get them.
    History…or time…has sped up. We should be seeking out innovation because we are professionals and we actually give a damn. Is technology important…sure…but so is a whiteboard and a desk. The teacher, the fundamental element of human infrastructure, is what is most able to MOVE the student.

  7. sinikka says:

    Thank you for this post, very relevant. I am definitely mulling over similar questions in my work. I totally agree with you about placing students and learning in the centre of education rather than technology. Then again, I also believe that “to better prepare and help students learn TODAY” cannot be done without meaningful engagement with technology. But sadly there are still too many teachers who simply refuse to integrate any new technology whatsoever in their teaching – and for whom your blog title is dangerously misleading – they would read it and triumphantly exclaim: “This is what I’ve always said!”

    We have national curriculum guidelines, which are tailored locally to a small extent. They are from 2003, and hopelessly outdated. What’s more, teachers hardly know what is written in the guidelines, since they use the textbooks as their curriculum. (NB. In my country textbook industry is very different from most. Although commercially organized, the big author teams consist of active teachers and expert professors, who closely follow the national curriculum guidelines). Even though the guidelines vaguely mention ‘learning to learn’, ‘versatile use of ICT’, ‘collaboration skills’ and other important goals of today’s education, on the grassroots’ level business goes on as usual, and the majority of teachers teach in isolation, largely using methods that they were once taught with eons ago. Quite a few subject teachers in my country entrench themselves behind their own discipline and the great amount of autonomy that teachers have here, strongly protesting against any proposals of change while routinely covering lessons, raising a secure monthly salary (which doesn’t require any further training!) and counting the years till retirement (ours is a fast aging nation, so young teachers are a minority here!).

    The points you raise about what would enhance student learning at the end of your post are really fundamental. But how to initiate the shift – that is the question! Curriculum alone is meaningless, if teachers don’t need to come together at the school level to interpret it and develop their own school culture accordingly. Teacher training plays an essential role, but there, too, a lot of cobwebs need to be blown away. Strong and wise administrators with a clear vision could achieve a lot, but then there is also an old-fashioned, but highly respected, almost awe-inspiring, system of national final exams here that binds everybody’s hands. The list of hurdles goes on and on.

    To finish on a positive note, though, as an individual teacher, I trust I can make some difference, even if isolated from my face-to-face colleagues, and even if it’s only drops in the ocean without collaboration and a common goal for the whole school.
    PS. As Cameron, I don’t get many of my colleagues either :)

  8. Arcelina Santiago
    June 19th, 2009 at 17.04
    Of course I agree with the idea that ICT are good tools to motivate students but not the only one way to get it. The role of the teachers in the class and the relationship among students and teachers and school colleagues are essential as we are speaking about a peculiar organization that is a school where we work to and with persons (mainly helping each of our sutdents to become a “Person” in the whole sense of this word). The development of several aspects of a person and the promotion of the sucess is not only the Knowledge but also the personal and social aspects that are very important (even to the use of ICT correctly and with respect of civic rules). So the sucess of a good learning is not only throught the new techonolgy but to focus the teacher´s action as very important way to made the difference as the personal and interpersonal realtionship. Students need to find in their teachers a good professional (with good domain in scientifical, didatical and pedagogical way)but also a human being, prepared to help them in the learning travel. So teachers help students to develope several skills to be more and more prepared to the new challenges of the society. As you point in your article is impossible to get better results if the teaching process is based on those points. They are good topics to promote a reflection among the comunity of teachers.

  9. [...] Tolisano’s recent post “Never was about technology – Time to focus on learning” raises the question of technology’s true contribution to the teaching/learning [...]

  10. Dr. Sanford Aranoff says:

    Of course it is not about the technology, but the teacher understanding how students think, and building from there stressing the principles. See “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better” on amazon.

  11. Joining this conversation a few weeks later…

    I couldn’t agree more. Another edu-blogger and I had a brief conversation related to your “aha” moment. http://bit.ly/ARojS

    What is “technology”? One might argue that a pencil or chalkboard are forms of technology. Why is there so much emphasis on “integrating technology” and not nearly enough on how to become…simply…a better educator? Your quote near the end of the post seems to sum it up well: “To make a difference, it has always been about good teaching, reflecting and focusing on (relevant?) student learning.”

    I’m not anti-technology at all. If so, I wouldn’t have spent three years of my life working on a graduate degree in curriculum and instructional technology. Using it appropriately and effective while delicately balancing the urge to jump aboard the bandwagon of the latest tools is a challenge – hopefully one that will continue to rise in popularity in the days and weeks to come. Great post.

  12. @gailpotratz Well said. We all need to have signs like yours to keep us in check…

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