(…with apologies to Ezra Pound – Cantico del Sole)
The thought of what education,
The thought of what education,
The thought of what education would be like
If teacher-centered technology had a wide circulation
Troubles my sleep…
As educators, our professional lives are circumscribed within a dense sphere of technology. Even a brief reflection on our workplace reveals a world of constant interaction with communication, publication, performance, visualization, and knowledge building technologies. Indeed, some have argued that education itself is the best example of human technology. Yet too often, we see the design objectives of contemporary educational technology tools missing their mark by a wide margin. A recent body of literature reveals a "disconnect" between the idealism of those advocating for the use of computers in schools and the reality of integrating them effectively in today's classrooms (see Cuban, Kirkpatrick, & Peck, 2001). Cuban (2001) contends that little evidence exists to suggest technology's seamless integration into the classroom or that it has transformed the instructional process. What are the reasons for this disconnect? As described in the literature, the complications that seem to inhibit effective technology integration rise from the absence of focus on what technology teachers actually need in order to improve or enhance their work (focusing instead on a hyperbolic interests in the technology itself) coupled with a thoughtful presentation of that technology in order to ensure its proper use. Most educational technology tools today address the needs of administrators (understandably, because administrators hold the purse strings), or students (because developers mistakenly take them to be the "end-users" of the technology). Consequently, when attempting to integrate technology in their teaching, teachers frequently find themselves forced to adapt their ways to tools that were not meant for them.
What would it really be like if we had technology that truly supported the teacher? What would it look like? What would it do? I propose "teacher centered" thinking as a design model for producing "teacher centered technology." The idea is built on the concept of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) which is itself built on the broader model of human performance support.
First, here are some performance support principles that could be followed:
- Day-one functionality (minimum training required): Don't waste my time. Everything I do from the beginning needs to point towards productivitiy.
- Low-floor, high-ceiling (easy to start, open to expansion): All I need should be a computer, an internet connection, and a web browser. But if I want to use google maps, or build scripts with my students, I should be able to.
- Easy access to all needed information: Every page, every screen, every tool, every process should come with it's own meta-data of extensible support information.
- Extensive support for teacher-research: Anonymize student work for research purposes; access to TCT-wide quantitative information; access to hooks for qualitative research tools.
- Independent of institutional systems: I should have 100% control of the space where I develop my courses, teach my classes, and exhibit my work; and I should be able to export everything and run it in stand-alone mode.
- Interoperable with institutional systems: I should be able to integrate my TCT into any institutional, or at least provide hooks using standard web services.
- It should be affordable.
Coming up… a sketch
6 comments:
I would add that the technology we often see being introduced within schools most certainly primarily services, admin, student but also the technologist themselves. In this way the introduction of technology allows the layers of bureaucracy to continue. Which, of course, upon reflection, is exactly what technology as a structure needs to happen. The structre needs to continue our dependence via a cycle of replacement “keeping up to date” and designed obsoleteness (is this a word?). In other words if we do not take a look at the use of technology within education we continue to feed and support populations other then the one we can most directly affect, the educators themselves.
By servicing and researching their (teachers) needs, expectations and goals we can make some assumptions based upon the population, their motivations, educational background, training etc. If we focus on students we run the risk of trying to assess too wide a population with diverse needs, experiences, capabilities etc. If we focus on the technologist we can certainly predict the outcome and if we center on admin we affect only the layers of command and control and often these do not drill down into day to day classroom environments and student interaction.
So it seems we should focus on educators.
Okay, what device should we use. Yes, they must be simple, apparent, easy to use, quick to scale. But lets not forgot programs. I think what we are looking for here, the killer app if you will, are programs. Programs designed to serve specific populations and groups within those populations.
Say for instance we are dealing with teachers, history teachers. What are their needs, expectations? What are their skills? What devices are they trained to use? Well, they know a bit about research, about study , about formulating hypotheses. They know how to express themselves via written forms of communication. In other words they develop a research questions, they study, and they communicate via a publication of some sort either in textual or spoken form (discussions and lectures).
It seems to me that whatever technological device we wish to introduce into this environment to make the activity more efficient and to allow the educator a broader reach ( for what is technology if not a means for efficiency and a way to extend and amplify oneself into the environment) we should think about a program that mirrors their educational training and allows or a opportunity to broadly compose and publish. Here is where I propose we begin. We find and develop programs, training opportunities and not think too hard on devices but on means and methods of composition and expression and research. We ask questions, dive into them and broadcast our findings and thoughts within a public sphere for debate........that is the beginning of educational technology.
Sorry... The above comment was made by Will Davis.
Comment from an educator:
Interesting Yitna. I used laptops in class for the first time last week and it was a miserable failure. I was just a sub for the teacher but I found myself unable to really help the kids. They were supposed to "do" research but there was no sense in that over a book. In fact, it was harder for kids to copy the facts from the screen. They did not know how to narrow anything down and became frustrated by having to read so much content. (Remember they cannot read very well) It was a bad assignment and I was trapped in it. In the end they managed to complete the worksheet but it was of no value.
So how do you help a teacher like that?
Like any other teaching (perhaps more so in this case) , bringing in a computer requires a lot of preparation, practice, and reflection. I am not sure what had been planned for the students, but researching topics itself to begin with demands a lot of work. Doing it on the web without extensive practice turns it into something much like throwing a novice swimmer into the middle of the ocean.
Part of my “teacher centered technology” argument is that teachers themselves have to first understand and take ownership of the technological environment they have at their disposal. If I can continue the analogy, I would suggest building a swimming pool first, with graduated depth, a strong diving board, ladders on the side, etc. And that is just for the teachers. A kiddy pool would be added later, when they feel ready to take on students. Why don’t we do things like this to help our teachers? Why do we believe the technology itself will solve its own problems?
A lot of people say the technological agenda in education is economic and not pedagogic. And teachers who jump into the fray uncritically suffer a triple jeopardy: they wasted their time, they’ve wasted their students’ time, and they’ve wasted everyone’s scarce resources. I think that’s what you saw happening. You’re right, in this case, a simple hand-me-down text book would have done the job much better.
Yitna
Will -- the point you make about the relationship between technology and bureaucracies is spot on! There is an affinity there that any technologist must be very cautious about. The bifurcation of design objectives between administrators and students (leaving teachers out) is partly because of this affinity.
I also agree with you about the importance of the broader discussion of the educational system (the educational "life-world") in general. But my specific interest is device oriented. My question is: can a device make a difference in the life of a teacher -- the way the printing press made a difference, in the life of a printer, the stirrup in the life of a medieval soldier, the stethescope in the life of a doctor, or Office in the life of the office worker.
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