I recently came across an interesting article written by Helen Lee Bouygues titled, Does Educational Technology Help Students Learn and was amazed by what she had to say! Interestingly, Helen came out with three hard-hitting points, namely, “Screen time can diminish face to face interactions”- suggesting a negative social impact, “People navigate and comprehend texts on paper more thoroughly than text on screen”- asserting that print on paper has more impact than pixels on screen, and that, “Socrates famously observed that writing tools would impair people’s ability to remember.”
Strangely enough, some of these
things strike a chord! While no doubt Ed.Tech. does provide for an immersive
experience, the fact is that it also adds up to distraction in learners. How
often does one see students in the I. T. Laboratory. Playing games, or probably
surfing the net to chat to friends or even check cricket scores? In many cases,
students would rather have me send their homework online than jot down a few
sentences in their notebooks. How often do students ask me if they can submit
their essays and projects in a printed format. While some might feel it would be
OK, I would counter with the argument that since their final exams are all in
the written form, it would be better if they wrote more!
It has come to the notice of many educationists that since we have started accepting word processing, the quality of
expression, creativity, transition and flow of written material has
deteriorated. The confidence that comes with actually writing down one’s thoughts
and knowing one’s spellings without having to resort to a spellchecker are
advantages that speak in favour of the pen and paper.
Technology Failed my Students and Me.
Although I use technology as
often as I can, there have, however, been times when Technology failed my
students and me! There was this time when I had prepared for an observation
lesson in grade eight, the Principal was to come. I had just connected my
laptop to the projector and was going to show them a presentation when things
began to happen. Ma’am entered the class, my H.O.D. also decided to step in. It
was a high energy class. But then the projector would not connect, the WiFi
connection failed and there I was twiddling my thumbs wondering what I could do
to salvage the situation. The voice level grew and the students became
distracted and there was chaos. Fortunately, my Principal offered to call the
I.T. Technician. By the time he came and
fixed the fault, the magic had faded.
In yet another instance, I had prepared for a
lesson on speech writing with links for videos of speeches by Steve Jobs,
J.K.Rowling and Shah Rukh Khan. I had even brought my external Blue-Tooth
speaker, not trusting the installed classroom audio system. I wrote the learning targets on the green
board, told the students to open their note-catchers and then started the
video. Five minutes into Steve Job’s speech, the audio faded away. To make
matters worse, the WIFI failed. I quickly whipped out my cell-phone and used it
as a WiFi hotspot and struggled on with Job’s speech. Alas! It still didn’t
work out. The classroom at the end of the corridor was somehow not ideally
located to receive Cell Phone signals. We managed fine with J.K. Rowling’s
speech and that was it. Surprisingly I was able to play all three speeches in
another section in the next two periods.
Technology Made me a Handicapped person.
A cable that had shorted, a
battery that was depleted, a WIFI connection that was on the blink had all
caused Technology to fail. The resulting effect was that the students were
distracted and they had more time to talk amongst themselves. Sometimes we have
great plans for a great topic. We research topics, gather material, develop
PowerPoint presentations, prepare flow charts, create infographics for the
class but then when something fails then it causes great anguish. Technology, unfortunately, requires quite many supporting systems. You need an internet
connection, a projector, a laptop, the audio cable, VGA Cables, HDMI Cables, Ports
and the list can go on. When any one of these systems goes on the blink, things
go wrong. People who depend too much on Technology become handicapped when any
one of the systems fails. Few teachers are able to improvise technology
failures by using the green-board to write, draw or highlight important topics
of the lesson because their handwriting has become so bad.
But then, I love Technology in spite of everything!
In spite of some of its worst
failures, I love Technology because it makes life easier. If you don’t use
technology, then you will have to write more on the Green Board - you will have
to speak more in class and work even more!
Showing students a video and then asking them to fill up a note catcher
or an exit ticket is easier than having to give them a lecture on the
Renaissance period. An online test is easier to correct
than a written one, in fact, online objective tests can be auto-corrected by the
LMS platform itself!
Can we celebrate our
own Versatility as teachers?
Looking at everything, one cannot
help appreciating the fact that when everything fails, it is the teacher with
his or her chalk and blackboard who pass the test of time. A skilled teacher
will offer everything that technology can offer and even more. When all the
technology fails, it all ends up with the teacher himself. When Socrates taught
his followers the art of metacognition he taught them without the help of technology.
Socrates continues to be one of the most researched thinkers even today. He was
a great teacher and he did not use technology. It is important to note,
therefore that while a teacher can do his job without technology, the latter, however, cannot work without the former. Technology apparently cannot replace
the teacher! It can at best be a tool - a teaching aid to promote learning. We
can, therefore, celebrate our versatility as teachers, individuals, who, when
required can work without technology and yet provide exceptional results. Human
beings are versatile, creative, inventive and effective on their own. Technology
has yet to catch up with human beings.
When I started teaching in the year 1994, in a Government-aided school in Delhi, I came across students who were first-generation students besides those who came from the relatively affluent families living in Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar and Shakti Nagar. In those days one could barely think of Educational technology. If at all possible, it was all about hiring a video player and the needed Video Cassettes. I remember getting a Video Player and showing the children Titanic the film because they had the lesson Sinking of the Titanic at the grade twelve level in English. It was much later that I helped set up a computer lab in that school and then, of course, it was all about computer-assisted learning. Then INTEL came up with the INTEL Teach to the Future programme. I was able to get my beginners followed by my Master's level certificate after training ten other teachers. The takeaway from that programme, however, was that we got to learn more about how to operate computers than really using computers to teach subjects. In those days anyway, very few schools had computer labs and so it was really not possible to use computers to teach students. The effective use of Educational Technology in the form of Computers and Projectors was strongly dependent on whether it was available in the classroom. Limiting the use of computers to the computer labs was really not helping. And yet, most of the students that I taught in those days have achieved great success. They did not have access to Educational Technology, they depended on textbooks, refreshers, classroom lectures and discussions.
Today things have changed. I teach in a school where each classroom is provided with a projector, an audio system, cables and a WiFi internet connection and teachers only need to carry in their laptops. Students can research in the classroom itself, watch a movie, a powerpoint, infographics and so on. Things have become easier what with the resources that the internet has thrown open to us. Unfortunately, this access to Educational Technology has not really led to an extraordinary improvement in learning outcomes. The novelty factor apart, the use of Educational Technology has in many schools become an accepted tool a mere paradigm shift from pen and paper, chalk and green board to E-Books, E-Documents and the so-called Soft-Copies of homework and projects.
When I started teaching in the year 1994, in a Government-aided school in Delhi, I came across students who were first-generation students besides those who came from the relatively affluent families living in Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar and Shakti Nagar. In those days one could barely think of Educational technology. If at all possible, it was all about hiring a video player and the needed Video Cassettes. I remember getting a Video Player and showing the children Titanic the film because they had the lesson Sinking of the Titanic at the grade twelve level in English. It was much later that I helped set up a computer lab in that school and then, of course, it was all about computer-assisted learning. Then INTEL came up with the INTEL Teach to the Future programme. I was able to get my beginners followed by my Master's level certificate after training ten other teachers. The takeaway from that programme, however, was that we got to learn more about how to operate computers than really using computers to teach subjects. In those days anyway, very few schools had computer labs and so it was really not possible to use computers to teach students. The effective use of Educational Technology in the form of Computers and Projectors was strongly dependent on whether it was available in the classroom. Limiting the use of computers to the computer labs was really not helping. And yet, most of the students that I taught in those days have achieved great success. They did not have access to Educational Technology, they depended on textbooks, refreshers, classroom lectures and discussions.
Today things have changed. I teach in a school where each classroom is provided with a projector, an audio system, cables and a WiFi internet connection and teachers only need to carry in their laptops. Students can research in the classroom itself, watch a movie, a powerpoint, infographics and so on. Things have become easier what with the resources that the internet has thrown open to us. Unfortunately, this access to Educational Technology has not really led to an extraordinary improvement in learning outcomes. The novelty factor apart, the use of Educational Technology has in many schools become an accepted tool a mere paradigm shift from pen and paper, chalk and green board to E-Books, E-Documents and the so-called Soft-Copies of homework and projects.
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