It’s September already, so I’m trying to figure out where the summerhas gone and have begun dreading the coming snow. It’s also time for my annual “Backto School” column. This year, we begin with some video watching…
- If you’re primarily interested in higher education, watch this video
- If you’re primarily interested in K-12 education, watch this video
Of course, you can watch them both, but the themes are similar.
Both videos imply a 20th (or 19th) centuryeducation model for dealing with 21st century challenges andopportunities. Everything from class size to irrelevant curriculum, from lackof involvement to ineffective teaching, all seem to point to an educationsystem that at best is treading water and at worst is falling behind the restof the world (as several studies, likethis one, point out).
Technology to the rescue?
The power of these two videos is the exposure of some of the biggesteducation challenges we face in both higher education and K-12 education. Theweakness of these two videos is that they seem to suggest that the solutionlies in technology. Really?
If only we put technology into the mix—big time—our problems would besolved. Students do not do a very good job in writing research papers, but theydo write thousands of emails. Same thing, right? They don’t read (expensive)textbooks, but they do read Facebook. What’s to worry?
I just finished six years on my local school board. Our school districthas embarked on an infusion of technology into the classroom, putting tabletsand laptops in the hands of students and faculty, at all grade levels. A goodidea? I think so, but success depends on how well they do it. So let’s not rushblindly onto the technology bandwagon. As the educators I worked with oftenreminded me, technology is notcurriculum—it is an enabler. This iskey. In higher education and in K-12 education, I have seen what happens whenyou just dump a ton of gadgets into an educational setting without changing thefundamental pedagogical strategies used to take best advantage of thosegadgets. You probably have as well.
Don’t be fooled
The history of education is littered with the good intentions of onetechnological innovation after another that tried to deliver educationalimprovement by using the same educational strategy in a different, moreeconomical (so they say) manner. What’s that they say about “lipstick on a pig”?
Solving the problems depicted in the videos is very important, but theysolve them by just giving everyone an iPad or other device. Technology helps keep everyone informed. It extendsreach and access. It helps accelerate learning and makes it personal. It bringsthe outside world in and can make learning more authentic and less risky. Itsupports knowledge sharing and creates institutional memory. It can even save alittle money.
But it won’t do any of thesethings if you don’t use it right. Redesigning the learning experience andtaking advantage of the unique capabilities of technology to foster aresource-rich and collaborative environment is critical. A boring classroomlecture is just as boring online. Despite the “cool factor,” bad content doesn’tmagically become more useful when delivered on a tablet. Moving to technologymeans moving to new curriculum and instructional designs as well as new ways ofteaching.
One example: flipping out
There are manyentrepreneurial, out-of-the-box, innovative ways do this; here’s just oneexample to consider. The Khan Academy, begun by former hedge fund analyst(really) Sal Khan, began as an effort to use very simple web technology totutor his cousin in math. Today, over 3,000 free tutorials are on theKhan Academy website. Okay, you say, so it’s neat technology and there’s lotsof good stuff out there; is that it? No, and here’s where it gets interesting.
Technology is just part of theequation. In Khan’s case, the other important part is “flipping” the curriculumalong with teacher retraining. Simply put, what was once homework is now donein class, and what was once done in class is now homework. Students review thevideos—the content—at home, at their own pace, and as many times as needed, and then practice,discuss, collaborate, experiment, and apply what they learned in class. Theteacher becomes less of an instructor and more of a facilitator and coach. Thisreversal of the traditional educational model recognizes that you just can’tchange the medium in which you deliver content, you also have to change the wayyou teach it. Learn more about Sal Khan and the Khan Academy here, here, and here, and then brainstorm with your team other creative, innovative, andimpactful ways you can change what you do to make learning technology much moreeffective.
So the next time you experienceboredom, frustration, or irrelevance in an educational setting, or the nexttime you ponder putting the “magic pill” of technology in the hands of studentswithout changing the environment in which that technology is used, justremember this ancient Chinese proverb: “If you don’t change yourdirection, you’ll end up exactly where you are headed.”
