Doug Johnson

Are You Doing the Wrong Things Better With Technology?
Head for the Edge, Technology Connection, October 1995

Last month Head for the Edge explored how technology can be used to do the right things the wrong way. Does the opposite also hold true? Can educators use technology to reinforce outdated, ineffective or ill- considered education practices?

Ask yourself again what’s wrong with these pictures? Watch out! You’ll be examining some of education’s most sacred cows.

• A district last year spends about $5000 to buy a license for a computerized grade book program. It works great. Teachers love it because it does just what their paper grade books do.
• Pretty, noisy, easy-to-use software repetitively drills children on low level skills - just like workbooks. Really expensive workbooks.
• One of the most requested items in schools are LCD panels which allow a teacher to show a computer program to an entire class. Even though the computer is being used, the teacher centered teaching method is preserved.
• Videotapes or 16mm films are shown straight though. No stopping, no discussion. The darkened room, the sonorous narration, Yawn…
• A school media center installs a new security system without thinking about the message it is sending to students about the trust and responsibility. It takes years to pay for and is incredibly easy for most kids to “beat.”
• Some circulation systems only allow the media specialist to print overdues lists which include both student names and book titles. These lists violate student privacy.
• A teacher sends his class to the media center to just “surf” the Internet.

Whether we like it or not, society’s demands on education are requiring that we change how we teach, how we operate our schools, and how we treat students. Fifty years ago our society needed only about 25% of its work force be creative, cooperative, and information literate. The other workers performed tasks in the service or manufacturing sectors where higher level thinking skills were unnecessary - even discouraged. Who wanted a “creative” person putting the wheels on new cars?

Today those percentages have reversed. Business tells us it needs problems solvers and team players, not line workers. It needs employees who understand systems and can allocate resources. All these new competencies involve higher level thinking skills, especially information skills. And the development of higher level thinking skills just wasn’t done in most old fashioned schools.

The ways schools have begun to respond to new workplace demands should have educators asking if technology is helping or hindering educational change.

• The teacher-centered, sage on the stage, student as passive learner model of classroom structure is being replaced by child-centered, guide on the side classroom, active learning models. LCD computer displays and droning videotapes can as easily reinforce the first structure as the later.
• Letter grades and objective tests are being supplemented or supplanted by demonstrations of competencies and portfolios of work. There are some exciting assessment packages coming on the market which help provide a detailed and accurate picture of a student’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals. And they don’t look like paper gradebooks in the least!
• Memorizing facts is being viewed as less important than locating current information. Application of knowledge is the new basic skill. “Drill and kill” software certainly makes low level skill instruction more palatable, even fun, for students. But it is still low-level instruction. Ask this easy question about the latest software you’ve purchased: Does the computer tell the user what to do, or does the user tell the computer what to do?
• Discipline policies and school rules increasingly respect student rights and ask students to take responsibility for making good value judgments. What message does the technology you use send to students? That they can be trusted? That they have a right to privacy? That they can make good decisions?

Technologies properly used assist school transformation. The computer can help the students effectively use information. Software can improve the accuracy and value of student assessments. Productivity programs can encourage active, student-centered learning. Technology done right helps teachers teach all students higher level thinking skills - as society is demanding. But it doesn’t happen without vision, thought and leadership.

Look around your school. Are you doing any wrong things even better with technology?