I have been thinking about technology in the classroom a lot lately. What amazes me is how many teachers don’t use it. Even the new teachers I see are, in my opinion, completely clueless as to what to do with it.
Something many teachers don’t understand is that technology is not a fad. It, and the internet, have fundamentally changed the way the world works. Not only that, but just as a bushman who hasn’t been exposed to technology can’t even see a picture if you show it to him , or a child who watches TV from a very early age responds much better to visual stimuli, children today have brains that are wired differently. Your experiences, when young, play a large part in the way your brain works later on.
Teaching must change. The way students learn today is significantly different from any time in the last 2000 years. I say that without hyperbole. Think about it. My teachers, and my teachers’ teachers, grew up with books, pencils and paper. This has been the norm for a long long time. The current generation have a wealth of information at their fingertips. They can take a picture with their phone and have it accessible to the world within seconds. Today’s students don’t need to memorize something that they can google. Companies are constantly looking for ways to get their attention. There is so much information and so many distractions coming at them at all times. Teaching todays learners through traditional lectures,worksheets, and books is like speaking some foreign language they don’t understand. They require instant, easy access, more control, visual and creative lessons.
On the other hand, the technology is exactly what makes life so temporary and makes it so difficult to rediscover what happened the last time we got to the point where everything was at the whim of a massive high altitutude EMP burst.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for misguided altruism and blindsided futurism. You know, if the dinosaurs had just had the sense God gave grits and stayed inside their air-conditioned stadia playing fat-fingered video games, we wouldn’t be here today considering the latest advances in education.
Good to see you’re back, dude. I’ve reported you to Homeland Security, so it’s good you’re in Norway.
I just look at the students today, when they sit in a barren classroom with a teacher talking to them, and I see them drifting off more than I have seen before. I use technology to engage them and keep them focused. Sure, it doesn’t always work, but I see improvement. My goal, more than anything else, is to reach a point in my teaching where everything focuses around critical thinking.