Technology in Education (LinkedIn Post)

It’s not about the machines…

I came across a wonderful ASCD blog post recently about the incredibly rapid evolution of gadgets and computing devices.

There was a description of research done by Apple into computers in classrooms over a long period of time.

I was particularly struck by this passage..

It turns out, the evolution wasn’t really about the computers. Moving from “computer as furniture” to “computer as practice station” to “computer as occasional lesson decoration” to “computer as an extension of and enhancement to teacher and student thought” required a serious transformation of how teachers thought about teaching and learning

This culture shift is something we’ve been talking a lot about lately, and particularly, about the difficulties in effecting such a change in working mindset. Its interesting to note that the above reflection comes from the 1990′s. I wonder just how much progress we’ve actually made on this particular journey?

But maybe this later passage from the blog post is more telling, and encouraging…

They slowly gave up the belief that a class that’s quiet and predictable represents a fertile learning environment. They learned to listen to students and respond to their questions, interests, and needs. They progressively came to trust and support student capacity for independence. And they found peace with the reality that the kids were often more comfortable with the equipment than the teachers were.

Following this, it goes on to consider the role of content, and more importantly, created content. But perhaps the most promising statement is this one..

Teachers began to see students as their partners in inquiry.

Now, perhaps fifteen years down the road from this study, has that promise been fulfilled?

(Image from creativityforlife.com)

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