Educational technology enthusiasts relegate themselves to niche status when they promote tech integration in the classroom without contextualizing ed tech within the larger picture of education.
Let’s play a short round of Jeopardy. The answer: educational technology. The question: Where can educators find tools to accelerate their progress toward the ultimate goals of K-12 education?
This question exposes a key gap in much of the educational technology propaganda circulating today: What are the ultimate goals of K-12 education? How transformative or revolutionary is educational technology without a clearly defined goal?
Consider this analogy: when I travel from Tucson to Phoenix (cities in the state of Arizona, USA), I have numerous options that might assist me in arriving at my destination, which is usually my parents’ house, where the free food lives. I can choose to walk at about 4 miles per hour, and arrive at my destination in about 1 day, 10 hours. With the right training and licensing, I can use a car to arrive in about 1 hour, 43 minutes (the time is less if I’m perfectly honest about my driving habits). Clearly, this technology allows me to arrive at my ultimate destination faster.
The technology-as-accelerator principle rings true in education, just as it rings true in business, medicine, and engineering. If my school staff can achieve a consensus about what we want our school to accomplish, what specific service we want to provide to our community, then technology can be a great accelerator toward that goal. If my school continues to be an amalgamation of individual educational practitioners teaching isolated pockets of 25 students, then technology will be a sideshow, a distractor, a headache, but not revolutionary.
I like the analogy comparing classroom technology to automotive technology. No matter what the technology, some become enamored with the technology for technology’s sake.
Excellent points. While there an argument for technology for technology’s sake in the cause of closing the digital divide, no teacher has enough time and every moment in the classroom needs to do double duty toward teaching standards. Having clear objectives and an assessment piece to every lesson (as you should when teaching without tech as well) would help.