Chasing the Dragon's Tale

I find it interesting when newspapers fill the empty spaces between political punditry and crime news with stories about technology in the classroom (insert snark). Two such articles appeared recently: an IndyStar.com article, Teachers' new pet is today's technology and The Gainesville Sun article, Keeping up with Tech-Savy College Students. In all fairness, both artcle provide a fair assessment of where technology use is today, but I sense generational differences between the two perspectives.

Here's what I am talking about...

Anne Ryman (via Arizona Republic) writes:

"Students are switching on their new tiny Apple iPod Nanos, which were a sellout gift at many stores and Web sites. Others are popping out new cell phones to text-message their friends. Some are whipping out portable game players.
High-tech gadgets have become a big school nuisance, especially right after winter break. But instead of shunning such devices, some teachers are finding ways to use them in the classroom.
Here are three of the most popular new technologies teachers are testing in their classrooms..."

In Megan Winslow's articles, Keeping up with Tech-Savy College Students, we're introduced to a 49-year old mom who realizes that her 17 year-old daughter is more likely to need a computer than a typewriter. From there, the article launches into the educator's chase for appropriate technology:

In this current age of iPods, souped-up cell phones and interactive video games, educators are trying to keep up with the tech-savvy student by digitizing the college classroom.

"There's a great field of people asking questions about using technology in the classroom - what works and what doesn't," said Christopher Sessums, the director of distance learning for the Office of Distance, Continuing and Executive Education at UF. Typically, however, there is very little technology specifically designed for the classroom, Sessums said, and his office is in charge of investigating and introducing new, adaptable technology and methods to educators.

One form of "social software" Sessums might be considering in the near future is the downloadable lecture. Pick-A-Prof, an online service commonly known for student-posted ratings of college professors, launched its own version of the feature, "CourseCasting," this week.

As a technology person in higher education, I find the first article very comforting and understandable. At the same time, it sounds like old news and it sounds like we have a long way to go (which it is, and we do). The technology for iPods, handhelds, and blogs sounds "so 2005"...even though I see the rapid transformation of each of those tools evolving into something powerful in education and learning.

(WARNING: Brace yourself for a rant)

The second article is more disturbing to me...the 49 year old mom who just crawled out from under a rock to find that the typewriter is missing from the college dorm room, unfortunately describes how too many people are attempting to employ technology. The thought process that the computer simply replaced the typewiter is terribly flawed, but applied far too often when disruptive technologies appear on the scene. We see these attempts every day when newspapers shovel print stories onto web sites without consideration of the differences in media...and even more frightening is the apparent applause that CourseCasting is receiving as an technological advancement in the cause of higher education....HorsePucks! The major difference between a student taking a 1970's cassette recorder into class and a professor digitally recording the same lecture for iPod distribution raises a number of questions: Have personal communication skills deteriorated to the point that learning to listen and take notes will be a lost art? Is class time still wasted with 45 minute lectures? Are lecture-based classroom styles a valid option for newer generations of students? By shoveling the same lectures into a different media and delivery system are we actually improving the way students learn...or is this a lazy reversion to an instructivist model of teaching? Can we embrace the idea that perhaps lectures belong on recorded media and classroom time can be used to re-enforce and assess learning? (OK, I feel better...end rant).

As a self-annointed spokesperson for the over 50 generation group (cough, cough), I would say that changing gears to meet the onslaught of interactive, highly networked students is our greatest challenge. The way that students learn has changed (and continues to change) and some of the accepted pedagogies are less appropriate than they use to be. The challenge for teaching is not to abandon all that we have been taught, but to embrace 'appropriateness' to include different and evolving models that include the technologies that are integrated into the lives of our students. I cannot image an era in history where rapid change in students, delivery systems, methodologies, information access, and technology is more difficult to keep up with. Teachers who are responsible for helping students learn are faced with an unrelenting challenge to increase the pace of their personal learning at the same time.

I think I'm going to find a great teacher and give 'em a hug!