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not Least...
DisWhat?
The key is to make teachers discontented users of technology.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project report on the Digital Disconnect has roused technology coordinators and technology trainers. It is addressed in a recent Technology & Learning article (that you should read if you missed it). Very briefly stated, the disconnect found in the report is between savvy "at home" Internet use by teens and the use of the Internet "in school" and in assignments. The teens challenge the schools to teach the teachers how and why to create interesting assignments that take advantage of Internet resources.
The discussion of the Pew report on the ISED-L list was at first reflexive (The data pool was too small; We are the adults - students should not be telling teachers how to teach; Kids aren't really savvy - they just do it more; Most of what they do is chaotic or cheating) and then reflective (Teachers need to be contented users of technology - then they will integrate; Technology coordinators and trainers need to support and encourage teachers so that they feel comfortable with technology). Technology people refocused on professional development and upon the lists of skills, tools, and methodologies that teachers need to develop to reach a first plateau of contentment.
Let's look at the Pew report from a different point of view. I propose that the disconnect is real, but it is not new and it is not digital. What the report unearthed is the perpetual disconnect between teenagers and the adult world; it is discontent in conflict with contentment. Most of the professional development in technology, top-heavy instructionally - the knowers teaching the need-to-knowers - reinforces this disconnect by perpetuating the anti-technology model of Teacher on Top.
Teenagers are not going to change. Their single-minded, restless search for answers and reckless exploration of all threads will defy the Big6 despite the best intentions of the adult world. The conclusions they reach will often make us uncomfortable. So, where does that leave us?
We need to reidentify. We need to focus professional development not on contentment and control of skills and knowledge, but on discontent and the concept that "not having all the answers is frustrating, but it is OK because a path to answers can be found." Answers do not have to come from the teacher.
What are the traits of the teacher who has managed the disconnect, who does successfully integrate technology into the classroom?
- Has a weak sense of time - able to become totally lost in a task
- Has a good sense of fun - makes time for it in tech learning and tech use
- Is restless between tasks
- Is driven to communicate learning - does not need for communication to be 1-1 (1-many is great) or in whole sentences
- Relies upon connection to a community for support, affirmation, information
- Believes that Change Happens - revision is a way of life
- Likes reruns - returns to tasks, lessons, books, websites and ideas frequently - sees with fresh eyes and learns more each time
- Sets amoebic boundaries - pushing out and absorbing are allowed - loves overlap, sharing and branching
- Asks questions all the time - many times questions are more important than answers
- Is comfortable in controlled chaos and pretty good at creating it
- Likes what she likes when she likes it but might like something else the next time
- Synthesizes and organizes well
With the possible exception of the last, these are teen traits - no antagonism, no surliness, just energy. Somehow these technology-using teachers have let go of the ADULT educator model (how they were taught has been forgotten) and allowed the TEEN side to resurface (how they learned has been remembered). The challenge to schools, technology teams and workshop leaders is not how to engender contentment, but how to make discontent acceptable and desirable. Here are some ideas:
- Teachers should learn new skills the way their students learn them: at home, with the technology, focused upon a subject or lesson (forget about skills in isolation)
- Find out about workshop leaders before you hire - do they talk, or do they let teachers experience and learn?
- If the public library offers Internet dial-up accounts, find out about it
- Find a way to get teacher web pages up and running
- Write the year's lessons in a list (one side of one page only) - in groups, have teachers pick one at random and talk about it for 45 minutes - Why? How has it changed? What if...? Suppose...?
- Arrange class trips so that an entire team of teachers can have a full, uninterrupted day for technology activities
- Instead of paying workshop fees, give teachers low-cost local Internet access for a year (not AOL!!)
- Spend time at each faculty meeting in small friendship groups discussing personal technology use
- Spend time at each team meeting with A New Look activity: pull a lesson from a hat and rethink it as a group - develop a vocabulary for discussion and questioning with technology in mind
- Challenge all labels (like "traditional" and "constructivist" and "technophoboic" and "change") - eliminate them from your school vocabulary
- Use the resources on the Internet in faculty meetings - show teachers how they can teach themselves - divide into groups and DO a webquest
- Spend time at each team or faculty meeting letting successful technology-integration teachers teach teachers - these are the folks who really know
Resources for further exploration:
- The Pew Internet & American Life project - reports are archived - in the last year alone there are several that focus upon general patterns of Internet use by households and by students
- Least Tern's Resources for Learning & Teaching With Technology - each of these resources will raise questions and provide insights
- Teaching With Technology - straightforward starters for the shy teacher who wants to jump in at home
- Learn the language: every teacher should be familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy.
- The Institute for Learning Technologies: Pedagogy for the 21st Century
E. Sky-McIlvain 3/29/03
