Don’t bother teaching “how to” technology

Commentary: I sometimes hear teachers tell me “I don’t know enough about technology to teach it”. To which I reply, “you never have to teach technology (how to use a program) to students, they can figure that out better than you.” In this regard, I tell them that I strive to learn the top toolbar or basic features of a program — and then fake it. The majority of students will have it figured out in their exploratory time, long before you even get to them.

Where students need you the most is, to help them:

• to think critically and for you to let them know when they are
• to articulate and justify their use of digital information (Why did you include this?, What message are you trying to convey? Who is your audience? Why did you choose this tool?)
• to model and scaffold the ethical use of information and behaviour in digital environments
• to provide discussion around student’s digital identities and provide opportunity to develop those identities
• to discuss how technology can best design and market their ideas

Teacher-librarians are essential at helping teachers to integrate this into their teaching and to help students to understand this. (One may ask, then why are there so few of them in our schools then?…and you should ask this).

By example: I think about a grade 4 student in my school, she could post to snapchat and text quite proficiently. She was also great at visual documentation, in the moment tasks that conveyed a quick message, text or idea. But when she came into the library lab to work independently one day, I was shocked when she called me over and asked: “what program do I open to type.” It occurred to me that there existed a digital divide for her between using tools for writing short summative narratives and posting on social media versus knowing how to use the tools that promote longer deeper thinking and writing.

This is an example of where we can serve students in the area of digital literacy — by narrowing the divide that exists for them. So yes, teachers (and parents) you do have much to offer. Start now! Guaranteed, they will be 10 steps ahead of you.