Technology as Management

For the next two observations, I am situated in a 6th-grade social studies classroom. I came in excited to see what might happen that was similar to or different from what I had experienced in my four science visits. Today’s post is being written between my first and second observations.

Initial Conversations

When I got to the room, two teachers were there. The classroom teacher and one other 6th-grade social studies teacher. They were planning together. I explained my purpose, and the filled me in on some things:

• a lot of students in the first class did not have tablets; this is due to the fact that most of their parents were not paying the insurance for them to get the tablet
• the school implemented the insurance plan (40.00 per year) after their experiences with Year One (this information came from a much earlier conversation with the principal); too many students did not return/broke the tablets they had been issued
• parents could call the front office and discuss how to get involved in a payment plan; most parents did not seem to be doing this
• as a result, the school is not a true 1:1 initiative because not all students have tablets leaving teachers to figure out work arounds; this particular classroom teacher thought that not all parents wanted their children to have tablets.

Technology as Management

A lot of my observations from this visit suggested that technology could be use as a way to manage students. I did not see the use of a timer today (first time ever!). However, I did see the following:

All of these things were about managing students in some capacity. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I do think that we can use technology in schools in ways that keep students organized and help them understand what to do. If we can post directions on the screen (and don’t need to create hand outs) then by all means do it. I do it myself.

My concern is that what I am seeing — so far — is that this is the primary way technology gets used in classrooms. When it gets used in other ways, it’s not being used in ways that are dramatically different from using a textbook. Students are still looking up and spitting out basic facts

Students can also use technology to manage their own data. For example, in this observation students were encouraged to take pictures of their notes with their tablet or to put their notes into google docs in case they were absent the next day (so all group members could access them). Again, great suggestions that should definitely be utilized.

Pushing Beyond Management

What I am not seeing is a push to use technology to help students experience schools differently. What I continue to see is school being school. The same space it always was with just a new toy in it.

Consider that today I observed:

• students drawing an image of Rome based on their memory

• reviewing h/w which contained a series of literal questions
• using maps to identify a place in Italy and then generate clues to help students guess which location the clues aligned with (hints get more specific as they go on with the 4th one practically giving it away).

While technology was used by the students— primarily to access maps to generate the clues for the guessing game — it didn’t have to be. Students had access to an atlas. This was, of course, necessary to some extent as not all students had a tablet.

I’m not sure what, if anything, is really being learned here. Certainly technology was not needed and it was not being used in a way that transformed the classroom.

Near the end of my visit, I realized that while I am critical of the lack of ingenuity no one actually said they were doing anything edgy or innovative. This is simple a school with a 1:1 technology initiative. No one ever said, “Come see how cool and innovative I am being over here!” I think it’s important point to make because this idea of innovation and doing school differently, well, it’s an idea that I bring to the table. It’s a lens I use.