Scott McLeod has a call out to folks to “blog about whatever you like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, etc.” It was due two days ago, but I am pretty sure I can change the time stamp on this post and sneak it in 
After reading many of the other #leadershipday09 posts I think you will find mine…ummm…a bit different. I am one of those people who could cut the electric wire leading to my house and live happily ever after. I could easily live in a shack with an outhouse 500 miles from the nearest road. I could go 3 months without ever opening my cellphone. That usually surprises people because we infuse technology into every unit that we do. While my post might seem a bit anti-technology, between the lines it is very pro-technology. I am for using it to make things, not do things. I am for giving it to kids to improve learning, not to improve teaching. As I look around, I see too many people recommending using technology to make things more interesting so the kids will be engaged and more interested in “learning.” It’s how Juan Bobo would use technology if he became a teacher. For a list of other #leadershipday09 posts please see Karen McMillian’s list that she has complied.
Dear Administrator,
I don’t like being known as the teacher who uses technology to motivate their students. I don’t like people looking at the products my kids produce and only focus on the technology we used. I don’t like it when someone suggests that kids like my class because of the technology, or that we are a computer class first, a social studies class second. I have never inserted any piece of technology into a unit to make my class more interesting, engaging, or fun. I did not start using technology and web 2.0 tools to help my units become stronger, more conceptual, or more authentic. I did not start using technology to put the STORY into our hiSTORY class. I did not start using technology to increase my kids desire to learn, grow, and become more independent. That was all happening before we started using technology.
I do not use technology to coerce students into learning. I don’t include a backchannel to make a boring movie more engaging. I don’t make their presentations more interesting by recording them for a podcast. I don’t have them blog so that they become excited about sharing their summary of chapter 6 in a post with someone in Fiji. We don’t skype with people across the world so we can listen to THEM talk to US.
Technology does not change the way I teach or how I plan my units. Without any technology we were making products for authentic audiences, thinking deeply about solving problems, and realizing that we can change the world. We dreamed big, walked tall, spoke-up, listened carefully, interviewed professionals and collaborated with one another well before the first computer entered my classroom. Believe it of not, I don’t need to use technology to get a group of 13 year old digital natives eager to come to class everyday.
Technology is not the answer to the problems facing the educational system. When it is placed in the hands of traditional teachers in an average school it reinforces the institution. Spending $4000 in that type of school on a Smartboard will just stunningly reinforce a unit that has no concept, no goals, no connection to the kids life, and is not authentic, problem based, or performance based. Moving to 1:1 laptops will improve teaching, it just won’t improve student learning. It is not about what kids are doing or what is being done to them, it’s about what they are making and creating. It is not the “answer” to why my kids leave at the end of the year ready to build a better future.
I don’t want to be known as the class that uses technology because technology is not the not the answer to raising test scores, motivating students, and creating “life long learners.” Technology is just tool. If you give a tool chest to someone who can’t build a house, they are still not going to be able to build a house. We can use technology to build a solid foundation of learning for our kid’s future, but first we must recognize that it has to be put into the hands of folks who know how to use it, or how to let their kids use it. Technology must be used to get the kids to be more independent of the teachers, not increase dependency. Where I live, new building technology is being used to create massive areas of McMansions. I hope with all the technology being infused into education that we don’t find in ten years that all we have built with it are massive numbers of McSchools.
So before you go and invest all those 1000s of dollars in IT, maybe first send a little bit of it to “PD.”
Yours truly,
Paul
Well said
What about using the technology to leverage the PD. Having the opportunity technology creates allows crafty administrators more leverage to push for better pedagogy.
On another note I just finished John Seymour’s book “The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It”. In a few years I hope to be able to cut that power line and be able to produce all I need.
This post addressed some of the concerns I’ve had as our school talks more about technology integration and said it much better than I could.
I am trying to make technology an integral part of what I’m doing with kids because of several beliefs; probably the most important of which being that I know access to technology and comfort with using technology are going to be gatekeepers for kids’ future success AND that there are major inequities related to these skills. Students with families who have access to and comfort with using technology, especially information and communication technologies are going to have immeasurable advantages. Because the “digital divide” falls into racial and socio-economic lines, I know that students who already often face a mismatch between school culture and expectations are the ones most affected by not having access.
I can see that the changes in how people communicate and find/share information will continue to change exponentially from what I’ve known and I want to do what I can to adapt my teaching/learning expectations related to this. I DON’T like the idea of technology as a bribe or a way to make a poor learning experience more palatable.
To me, it still comes down to the issue of how do I find ways to increase my knowledge and comfort with new technologies so that I can make good decisions about what to use and how to use it with my students.
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Thanks for the post that hits it on the head. My district has very little of the “new technology” such as ipods or laptops.
I must admit that it is easier to buy the new tools than to change the teaching style of teachers. PD is not effective IMHO if teachers are not open and willing to change their teaching styles.
Of course, the biggest thing in opposition to this style of teaching is the hyper-testing that we are currently so concerned about.
Thank you for writing this. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks like this in an increasingly insane school administration.
I use technology all the time, but only to support my student’s learning and with due regard for them as rounded individuals. I don’t use it EVERY lesson because I can’t stand the thought of students being educated in the dark (which is what the constant use of powerpoint is doing to them) and because some of my students are losing other, vital abilities like concentrating on each other or listening.
But our school admin has decided that we are to ‘become an electronic school’. To start this trend, our budget for paper-based resources by has been cut by 70%, even if the paper resources are proven more effective for the particular purpose we need resources, and even though our students don’t have any greater access to computer equipment than they did last year. In our after-school study room they have installed a smartboard that cannot be written on with pen, even though this year the maths students spent EVERY EVENING working on problems together. Because of the expense of smartboard pens, and because school leaders won’t let students use school laptops that hook up to this smartboard, our maths students will no longer be able to use this resource. Way to go management. Finally, the school has spent thousands on buying flat, wide-screen screens for the students but they are blocking all forms of video, game or social networking site and will be locking the doors to these rooms at all times meaning that students will no longer be able to use technology in their study periods. By ‘becoming electronic’ we have actually taken away our students’ abilities to use most of the stuff they previously had to support their learning.
Sigh. But at least you made me feel sane
This is just the right point I was looking to get across to teachers tomorrow when I introduce Scratch. What a lucky stumble-upon! I’m going to forward them to this post as it is good food for thought after a week of being bombarded with tech workshop sessions.
Hi Mr. Bogush . sorry so late, but I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d check out your blog and you really have been working since the school year ended. If you rember correctly I am will from fire group. I know you are into NASA a little bit and I just wrote a post on Apollo 11.
Check it out
http://www.williamf09.edublogs.org
PD is not effective unless it is provided by teachers who have been in the classroom recently, and are cognizant of learning styles, and the widely diverse needs of students. I love the idea of not using technology just for the sake of using technology, but I also think that just throwing PD at teachers isn’t the answer either. Whenever I present a technology session to staff, I always have a section ideas for the math teacher or the social studies teacher etc. because I’ve realized that teacher do not always instinctively think about, “how could I use this” with the subject I’m am responsible for teaching.