Skeptical of drinking the 21rst Century Digital Future Kool-Aid

[Alan Sitomer]

There was something exceptionally cool going on in Indianapolis this week during the NMSA annual conference where I just presented. Yet, it was also exceptionally troubling.

In the back of the exhibit hall somebody had set up a “Classroom of the 21rst Century”. Essentially, what they had done was bring in a class of real middle school students from a local Indy school and had them spend the day in an exhibit hall area that had been fashioned into a “21rst century classroom”.

There were laptops on every desk, an interactive whiteboard at the front of the room and all the latest digital gadgets that teachers and students can use for classroom instruction were on display -- so that passerbys (and purchasers, of course) could catch a glimpse of education’s future.

And like I said they had brought in real kids to participate in a regular class that was simply being held on location at the conference. (About 25-30 multicultural 7th graders I believe, but it was very much set up as a real classroom.)

And so I watched for about 20 minutes. Like I said, the idea of it was very cool and I salute all the folks for being innovative and trying. However, a part of what I saw freaked me out.

Smartboards, laptops, autoresponders and the such were everywhere. Okay, cool. And lots of teachers and admins were gawking. Well, I was gawking as well… but for a different reason.

Because academic rigor, critical thinking and demanding intellectual thought were almost nowhere to be found. The display was basically “worksheet lessons” that had been digitalized.

Oy vey!

I mean I get the good intentions of everyone but lots of old school educators remain skeptical of drinking the 21rst Century Digital Future Kool-Aid, and though I am a HUGE advocate of 21rst century skills, when I see what I saw, I understand why there is so much recalcitrance.

I watched it take 7 minutes – that’s right, 7 minutes – for a boy to come up to the front of the room and do a “fill in the blank worksheet style problem. Uh huh, a worksheet style problem.

The sentence on the interactive whiteboard was something like, “Libby is a ________________ retriever.” His task, fill in the blank. (I swear, I am not making this up.)

Now being that this was on a Smartboard, they had a picture of a golden retriever. And the teacher could make it bark. (Took him a bit though.) And the task (for the entire class) was to have 1 kid come to the board and write the proper “fill in the blank word” by hand into the blank on the board while 26 other kids watched and learned.

Learned what, I don’t know.

Of course the kid struggled with the digital pen for a wee bit, he accidentally leaned on a part of the board rendering it ineffective, the teacher tried to correct the kid’s mistake but they both found themselves writing at the same time so the board couldn’t respond properly and by the time all was said and done, over seven minutes had passed before this kid had written the word “golden” by hand into the blank… and then the teacher magically transformed the student handwriting into digital text with a press of his magic pen.

The audience went wow.

And I went WTF?

Like I said, seven minutes to fill in a single blank on a glorified, digitalized worksheet with a self-evident answer while the other 26 students did nada but try to remain well behaved.

In a way, being that I am the type of teacher who believes that there is a place for cell phones and the such in the classroom, this is my great fear. Just as some educators have turned computers into nothing more than glorified typewriters and then relaxed into believing they are incorporating technology into their curriculum by having done so, I am also afraid that the gadget craze is going to create a sense of false futurism.

The bells and whistles of technology are not going to replace the need for critical thinking and whether or not you mimeographed your worksheet question “Libby is a ________________ retriever.” in 1950 or you put it up on an interactive whiteboard at the front of a room filled with kids in some kind of one-to-one laptop environment, the actual teaching is still piss-poor.

If you are going to demonstrate a 21rst century classroom, these kids better be doing things like using the tech tools to build inquiry based webquests on the retriever breed or something… not “Libby is a ________________ retriever.”

Otherwise, what’s the point?

And more scary is how I saw the heavy hitting admins and superintendent types in the back almost salivating at the thought of all this 21rst century digital technology.

Lemme tell ya folks, I don’t care if “Libby is a %^#$Q* retriever.” Technology is a tool to wield but if we are not building the brain muscle of our kids, it’s better that these tools just stay on the shelf so that we don’t all dupe ourselves into believing that just because a class has laptops, Smartboards, and gadget up the yin-yang, there is actual learning going on.

And I am sorry if anyone from NMSA takes offense at this but if you are going to demonstrate a classroom lesson for the educational public to see, demonstrating scholarly rigor has got to be your first priority.

Let’s not let our eyes deviate from the real prize, right?

[Ron Shapiro]

If writing is thinking, then it does not matter with what tools a writer uses. One drawback with regards to writing is that laser printer, professional-looking copies seem to 'drug' the student writer into oftentimes misjudging the quality of what he/she has written. Many teenager writers show more concern for the product ("Ah, another thing I can check off my list of assignments.") than the process which, of course, is where the thinking occurs. When giving a writing prompt, there's always the student who asks, "How long? When is it do?" Rarely, if ever, does any teacher hear, "Wow, this is really going to make me think!" With writing, of course, the thinking occurs during revision which is one potential benefit of the computer. To help students understand what happens when they write, I find it essential to share with them drafts and more drafts so they can see the mess. As Peter Elbow, I think, once remarked, "Make it messy to make it good." With computers, unless students are tracking changes, there is no mess. Kind of like those old m & m ads with the kid's hands revealing no chocolate mess. Yet, as we all know, eating a piece of chocolate can be finger licking good. The process of eating is more fun than chewing on an m & m. So, all in all, too many students have fallen into the typical American work ethic of 'the greatest reward for the least amount of effort.' In ways, the computer has facilitated that mentality, though through revision, such a mindset can slowly begin to transform itself.

[Carol Sanders]

Digital learning is so fake!

Looking at a picture of an apple on a computer screen is NOTHING like examining a real apple. A computer cannot give us the aroma, or the flavor, or the texture of the apple. A computer may show us the star inside the apple, but cutting a real apple open and seeing that star is a great discovery that a couple of clicks simply cannot duplicate.

I've read that children should not touch a computer until they are five years old. They need to experience the real world. They will learn about gravity and cause-effect and light by playing with toys and manipulating objects, and more importantly they will learn about PEOPLE by interacting with PEOPLE. I am sickened when I see advertisements for the computer toys that "help" three-year-old kids learn by having them pedal a pretend bike to make a screen show letters and numbers. Let them pedal a REAL tricycle! Let them play with letter and number magnets. Let them measure the REAL flour and sugar and break the REAL eggs to help Mom bake. Let them "help" an adult drive the lawn mower. Let them make a REAL bed and read a REAL book and see the star inside a REAL apple. That is REAL learning.

[Elizabeth Schaick]

This is one of my favorite articles. I literally laughed out loud. Well done. It's crazy how much emphasis is put on the power of technology. I will remember this article when I start my internship next semester and be a little more weary of how "amazing" technology is.

[Christine Trala]

I left the discussion abruptly on Sunday, as someone was knocking at the door. I was saying, critical thinking is vital to the integration of technology. The image that comes to mind is Captain Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise. He is surrounded by a crew who each know how to work the tech; however, that tech is useless without his ability to take facts and figures, evaluate and make decisions collaboratively. Howard Rheingold has some interesting things to stay about such 21st Century Literacy.

The fastest way to stop critical thinking is through Death by PowerPoint. That said, PowerPoint can be an effective tool if text is used sparingly and ideas are represented graphically. A three hour class may have a total of ten slides if I've focused on presenting the ideas and arguments and not each and every word I want to say. That said, each of us is at different entry points when it comes to integrating technology, and there are some steep learning curves. Early on, this may mean more focus on the kit than the content. One way to avoid this trap is to hang onto good pedagogy.

I like Alyssa Bluhm's post about the use of backward design, AKA Understanding By Design, which is a fantastic way to plan in general, but an even better way to plan for integrating technology. Start with what you want the learners to understand, determine how they will demonstrate understanding and plan learning experiences. If the understanding benefits from the use of technology, then go for it if you got it. Built into this process is the importance of higher order thinking and essential questions.

At the end of the day, good teaching is good teaching. Kirk out!

[Eric T. MacKnight]

Somewhere in the mid-90s my friend Dan Weston said, the best thing about the internet for education is to use it as a publishing tool. And I said, What? Now of course the technology has caught up with his vision, and he's absolutely right. You can see what class blogs can do to enhance learning here http://www.EricMacKnight.com/myp9a (Gr. 9), here http://www.EricMacKnight.com/iba1 (Grs. 11-12), and here http://www.EricMacKnight.com/ibtok (Gr. 12 IB Theory of Knowledge).

Technology is not a substitute for good teaching, but the right technology used in the right ways can enhance learning.

[Annabella Zanetti]

In Australia, the government has recently begun to roll out laptops to every student in secondary school. starting with year nine, and then the year seven and eight students receive their over the next year.

These are the small AESUS laptops that have been specially designed for the classroom. All teachers are expected to be able to use the software and teach using ICT. my year nines at my prac school are getting theirs at the end of this week.

Because of this, we have been looking at a lot of various applications for technology in the classroom. I would describe myself as computer literate, but I am not an enthusiast for technologies. Personally, I am very slow to take on new trends, but because of the push here in Australia, I have begun to branch out and decide how to apply technology in my classroom and find the balance.

The class you describe above is already here in Sydney, its not going to go away. I think that as teachers, we have little clout over the politicians who play for favour with the public through giving all children laptops, so the best we can do is to figure out ways to use them effectively, and to teach our students that there are appropriate times for using technology and there are appropriate times for doing things "the old fashioned way"

[Michael Umphrey]

Not almost.

[Alan Sitomer]

That Alfie Kohn piece was scathing. It's like one of those things that most probably flies right over the heads of those that he is roasting. Or, worse, those who are on the receiving end of the satire just poo-poo Alfie and dismiss him as just one of those hippie-dippie lefty educators (or whatever they call him). It's almost dystopian the way that all this 21rst century skills thing is playing out.

[Michael Umphrey]

Lots of lofty rhetoric and good intentions, organized into a vast machinery that begins to operate by its own logic. The oligarchy at the top can't help but begin to conspire. It's what we humans do.

[Kim McCollum-Clark]

Jinkies! There's nobody like Alfie to make the point clear. I tried to say something like this on one of Alan's earlier blogs about how the standards movement has changed the conversation about schooling possibly irretrievably without the "consent of the governed"--not because it was a conspiracy, but because the standardistos were persistent and indefatigable in their methods. This article makes me want to run for the hills.