Edustange

The slow pace of newspaper communication

On Using Technology Without Understanding It at Beyond School.

I appreciate the sweet irony of this thread. It begins with a cautionary article published in a student newspaper and then proceeds to a thoughtful analysis of the article’s cautions that popular social networking applications do not equate to best practice in the classroom. From there the discussion braids convergences and divergences into a rich thread exploring the strengths and weaknesses of instructional technology in education.

Education has never been about finding the right instrument. It has always been about  bringing together an ensemble  and realizing that the an instrument in one person’s hands might be more effective that it would be in another’s. This is what we mean by differentiating instruction and attending to learning outcomes when we design instruction. What we are still struggling with is an orchestra paradigm where the teacher is conductor (setting the pace and mood, bringing desperate pieces together to create a harmonious unity). Perhaps what we need to strive for is an ensemble with soloists and shifting roles. Work on my metaphor and get back to me.

Our culture has a mania for technology and innovation. This enthusiasm overwhelms our common sense at times and blinds us to the need for appropriate technology. This is as true of learning as anything in our world. Understand though, we have to open our classrooms to all effective media of communication, then recognize that our students need a basis to critically evaluate those media and the authority to select the media that works best for them.

I have a student attempting to create a Ning network to both gather and communicate his learning. I suspect he is simply exploring a new technology and that it may not be the best vehicle for his end. I suspend my reservations because I can see how this might meet his needs and I accept that, young as he is, he may see how it will work better than I do. To return to the cautions of the article I linked. This student chose the media, not I. My role now is to support his learning.