Despite the fact that I champion technology at my school. Despite the fact that I often write about and promote the use of technology in my personal and professional life. Despite the fact that I am presenting next week at a conference about how technology can help second language learners express themselves. Despite the fact that I encourage my daughter to feel comfortable with a camera and her way around a blog. Despite all of these things, or maybe because of these reasons I am often nervous about technology and the effects it has on all of us. We all should be.
I work at a 1:1 Apple school, and I am not gonna lie, I love it. I cannot ever imagine working in a non 1:1 environment again. My kids have instant access to any and all websites, we blog, we create music, art work, writing, videos, you name it; we are on fire. I have kids who barely utter a sound in class who can now share their learning and express themselves beautifully, but despite my comfort with the tools and success with my students I am weary of the cost of too much screen time. I am sure, by the end of this post, I will end up justifying much of what I say by claiming validity for both sides of the screened or disconnected life argument and cry that balance is key. Taking the balanced approach, however, is the easy way out, unless we look deeply at what this balance system looks like in the lives of our students.
I do not and have never believed in technology for it’s own sake. We have had that conversation too many times. It is the learning not the tools, blah, blah blah. I hope we can all agree that technology, connected learning and the use of multi-media to create new content is crucial to student learning. I am not here to argue for either side. It is important, however, no matter which side of the debate we are on to slow down, douse ourselves with cold water and re-evaluate what exactly it is we are shouting. It is important to take a step back and consider all sides of our ideas. In the last few weeks, I have written often on the effects of social media on my personal psyche, and now I want to take a look at what hyper-connectedness and “screen” time can do for students.
This train of thought left the station after I read, Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug?. I was very impressed by the final paragraph:
It is time to engage in a purposeful, reasoned debate about where we’re headed with the use of digital devices in the classroom. We recognize that there is tremendous value in technology and learning, and are by no means advocating abstinence. But we need to be cautious about plugging our kids in more, pushing them into an even greater dependence on electronics. We need balance that stems from understanding that more isn’t necessarily better.
So many times, we draw lines in the sand, and the use of technology in schools is no different. I never want to be seen as the Techie-teacher who is so enamored with my own ideas and philosophy that I am not willing to rethink what I am most passionate about. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:
Criticize the tools you use and use the tools you criticize.
This quote hangs up in my room as a reminder that we owe it to our students to consider every angle when it comes to their future especially since we are all dealing in unknowns. We can claim that blogs help non-English speakers communicate in ways that were not possible before, but who is to say that my daughter’s affinity for my computer will not affect her attention span or interpersonal skills. We can claim that creating media rich content helps develop new literacies which allow students to interact with the world in new ways, but whose to say that staring at a screen seven hours a day will make it impossible for them to take a walk alone and contemplate the clouds.
I am always so saddened to see the students at our school constantly gathered around their laptops, not because I find what they are doing as time wasted, but because I do not think they have had a chance to get a taste of the other. In our global issues club we are working on a campaign for animal rights, but after a brief talk I realized that very few of these urban dwelling mammals have ever had an authentic experience with a wild animal, most not even with a domestic one. Who’s responsibility is it to make sure these kids run their hands through the soil or hike a mountain? Who will teach them to value nature and the simple sound of rain as it falls around them?
image by sean dreilinger
This post is running in circles a bit and that is fine with me. Maybe we can find some place to land in the comments. Let me try and squeeze out some kind of point. In between the typical, “computers are ruining our children” rhetoric, the article makes a few important claims that I would like to highlight and address:
Today’s kids are losing the ability to enjoy the sweet and mundane moments that are part and parcel of ordinary life. Most youngsters, if stuck waiting for a ride, cannot endure simply waiting: they whip out their cell phone to feed their insatiable need for stimulation. The tradition of playing outside after school to shake off the stagnation of sitting at a desk all day has been abandoned in favor of more sitting in front of the TV or computer, contributing to alarming obesity rates in children.
I know this is true because I see it in my students. I see it in my daughter. I sometimes see it in myself. For teachers who love tech and are using it is effectively, passionately, innovatively, those of us who claim that balance is important: what are we doing about it? We all know what we are doing to help students connect effectively, but how are we helping our students disconnect? I was thinking of introducing unplugged days, which would focus on reading, maybe drawing, playing acoustic music, singing in small groups, or just spending time alone drenched in silence. Maybe initiating yoga classes, nature walks around campus anything to slow life down to a manageable speed. I would love to hear your ideas about these or other ideas in the comments.
Now that I have read the article again several times, I am finding less there is less and less with which I agree. It makes some ridiculous claims like:
Increasing the use of technology in the classroom is like feeding our kids pop tarts and soda; it tastes good and they like it, but it doesn’t offer the nourishment they need.
I refuse to allow what I do in my classroom to be called a Pop-Tart. So please do not find flaws in the article. That is not what this post is about. I simply want to share thoughts on how we can help students see beyond their screens, so that when they are connected they can create more authentic and rich content.
I have this very big problem with the way most schools implement 1:1, and I think it connects with what you are seeing, and saying.
Just as I never saw value in all students in a room reading to themselves from the same book, or writing on separate papers about the same thing, I do not understand giving every student the same technology. The very nature of this act breaks many social bonds.
Imagine if your school was not “branded,” but one filled with technology the way “real” environments are. Different kids with different devices with different capabilities. Then, sharing – physical, actual, leaning in together and sharing, becomes the commonplace. Students would group in different ways around different devices depending on task. They would teach each other different things. They would have far more reason to physically move and engage.
Step One of technology integration was sold to schools by vendors, is being sold to schools by vendors. These vendors have branded not just schools but teachers themselves (“Apple Distinguished Educator” “Google Teacher Academy”) and they have sold the “efficiency” of single platforms as if “efficiency” is not the enemy of true human learning.
Step Two should be quite different. Schools need to embrace the technology choice which makes this century different from the five which came before it. And when we embrace that choice we will come back to humanity in our learning environments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UXh7Vb1XL8
– Ira Socol
Thanks Ira. I think you are right that being a “branded” 1:1 school often brings unneeded attention to the laptops. We have teachers who really resent the machines, because they are unfamiliar with how to function in a tech rich environment. And so when they see kids obsessed with screen time they blame the machine.
I understand what you are saying about more ubiquitous “real” technologies, but for most teen-agers , I don’t think a change in devices would facilitate disconnect and reconnect with a slower more natural world.
I am wondering how we move kids toward nature, not as an alternative to tech, but as a complement.
Thanks for the presentation.
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Well, first, I think we get kids out of classrooms. In classrooms there is nothing to look at except the screens – or that is how we have trained kids long before high school. So, if I go to either of the coffee shops in my town’s downtown, I see kids with phones and laptops, sure, but I also see them talking, reacting to people walking by, touching each other, even rushing outside at times. In that environment, which is both multisensory and informal, the digital realm is one of the environments, not the only one.
So choice is not just in types of digital technology, choice is in spaces and sounds and tastes and contacts. After all, if you toss your MacBook Pro and pick up your phone and walk outside – as Alcott (1832) insisted students must do every 20 minutes – the “real world” intrudes no matter how “connected” you are. You will be cold or hot. You will feel wind on your skin. You will see birds fly be. You will feel uneven ground beneath your feet.
– Ira Socol
So simple. So perfect. Thanks.
Came across this today and it seemed related: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-willpower/201101/can-you-catch-bad-habits-second-hand-exposure-tv
It’s not just direct exposure to media, but indirect exposure. This article focuses on TV, but same could be said about all the images our children come across in any media form.
Funny. It’s a beautiful, sunny day out in The Netherlands (a rarity here, though to be fair it’s quite cold) and I’m inside reading your blog and this essay by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik
I’m not sure where the perfect balance is or that there really is such a thing. I think as teachers we should have our fingers on the pulse of the class and try to pull them away from screens when we think they need it. Did you listen to one of the recent This American Life episodes on what happens when kids are allowed to make grown-up decisions? They visited the The Brooklyn Free School where the students themselves (they hold meetings and vote on all decisions – the kids are the administrators) instituted screen-free weeks aside from anything needed for class research. Every other week was screen-free week. However, on the day of the visit by TAL, the students voted to change the rule and eliminated screen-free week.
I know not all schools could do such a thing (The Free School only has 30 or 50 kids, I believe), but I believe the lesson there is to engage students in being cognizant of how their engagement with different technologies, be they laptops, mobile devices, books, microfiche machines, effects them as people – as humans. I’m big on getting kids to think about how they learn, how to think, meta-fill-in-the-blank…and I think tech affords us this opportunity. There are so many different opinions flying around about what technology does to us – how it gets inside us, as Gopnik calls it, and I think all of those ideas are worth exploring. But in the end it comes down to you and how it effects you.
I think one of the best lessons we can model for kids is that it’s okay to unplug – it’s okay to sit and wait for the bus and just think or listen to music – it’s okay to read a book and not blog about it at all if you don’t want to. The internet goes on without us, but it’s always there when we’re ready to return and post those pictures of our most recent nature hike.
Mary,
I love the Brooklyn and Manhattan Free Schools, and as a graduate of a much larger similar school – http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-schools-1-changing-everything.html – I will say that I know these student-centred environments can work really well, but I must say… I dislike the idea of the school voting on when students can make technology choices.
I believe this has to be individual decisions or students will not learn either technology choice nor technology etiquette. First Past The Post voting on How to learn or how to access information is just bad social policy, and that system eliminates Universal Design and labels special needs students, and that cannot be good.
People have always carried technology with them in their interaction with nature. I have seen people reading books outside. I have seen them sketching outside in sketchpads. I know that 18th and 19th Century “boys” carried pocket poetry books to read to their “intendeds.” I know that for thousands of years visitors scratched graffiti into monuments, both natural and man-made (I was just looking at that graffiti on the Temple of Dendur on Saturday).
There is nothing wrong with any of that. It is all a matter, as you say, of how we find balance. And finding balance begins with individual choice.
– Ira Socol
Ira,
I agree with you that student choice should be paramount in these tech decisions (I was just using Free School as an example of kids running the show.). I hadn’t even considered how allowing kids to rule and say “all of us are unplugging for a week” might then label the special needs students who might need that screen every week for learning. Really gave me pause.
I think as we help students understand how they individually learn best we can help them find the right tool to help in their learning, whether it’s graph paper, a laptop, an audio recorder, etc. And, as you said, we need to give them that choice in our classrooms if we truly want to individualize instruction.
Great line Ira: finding balance begins with individual choice.
But can students make informed choices when they have not been offered alternatives? If gadgets and screen time is what everyone is doing, all day everyday, how can a kid “choose” to sit alone and admire a flower etc…not to get to romantic about this Thoreuan fantasy, but I think you know what I mean. If we don’t at least ask kids o shut off and look around, who will? Once they have done it, then maybe we give them the choice.
I know as an adult who traveled extensively, who loves nature and tech, I have a difficult time choosing sometimes, how can these kids who never never been anywhere outside of their immediate environment, no to unplug?
I think we all agree when you say
I am just wondering if that needs to be school policy. If not who is making the conscious decision to remind/teach kids to unplug. I’ve taken many kids on Week without Wall programs and it takes a lot of work and time to help them adjust to being unplugged, but they love it after a week. When and how are we doing this on a day to day basis at school.
We cannot make technology the bad guy as many teachers and parents do; kids need to understand that we love tech too. They just need a time and a place to see the world without it. I love your line:
I wish I could comment with some sort of idea for how to do this – a way that doesn’t demonize tech or make students feel bad for liking to be connected – but I just found myself yelling at the computer “This is so hard!”
Maybe this is rinky-dink and not powerful enough, but my personal strategy in the classroom might be to get kids to think about the effect technology has on their lives, maybe through writing, discussions, etc. Just talk about it. I love just sitting down with kids and talking about these things and *surprise* we wouldn’t say it explicitly, but we’d be doing it without technology. We’d be getting to know each other, building a sense of community, and just talking. We could also do this outside in a park or on a nature hike. Share the good and bad – the wonderful, positive things that happen and maybe the negative things they perceive (not talking with their brother or sister as much because they’re too busy texting, or something else cliche). But I would always go back to how it’s okay to enjoy all of these things even while unplugging for a while. Your reason for unplugging doesn’t have to be “Technology is seeping into every part of my life! Destroying my personal relationships!” I’m rambling a bit, I just suppose I want to frame these sort of discussions so that they don’t seem like I’m one of those people shouting from the rooftops that kids are obese because they play on the computer too much, or some other short-sighted argument.
I think just the fact that we are all here and interacting is proof enough that we are not the types of people who are shouting from the rooftops that kids are obese because they play on the computer too much.
That was never the intention of the post. I hope we all get that. I also think it is great for all of us to come up with these great ideas about helping kids to unplug and reflect. Would be nice to create some PSA’s after completing these reflections. My brain is working and I know who you are so I may come to you for contributions.
It is very complicated, which is why this conversation has been so interesting. In everything we do there are a complex series of impacts on the various differing kids in the room. Traditionally, classrooms have not cared about that because, traditionally, Anglo-US education was absolutely conceived as an industrial process. Thus humiliating kids outside the “norm” was an essential part of the process – whether it involved reading outloud in front of other students, or handwriting whether it was possible or not, or being forced to climb the ropes or be smashed in the face in dodgeball.
Since the goal was (and still is by national policy) to fail the majority of kids, all this was/is perfectly fine.
Those of us who seek something different have a much harder job.
And part of that harder job is reconnecting our kids to the natural world. Kids who never play outside unsupervised. Kids who never get to explore anything not perfectly “safe,” and kids never have unscripted time (especially if we are among the privileged and/or suburban).
One of the things I try to do, for example, is get kids (and adults) outside into a place so quiet they can pause and hear the blood running through their ears. Once kids get there they can begin to hear in new ways. It is great, as well, to move from digging in dirt to rolling over and seeing the sky, a simple Powers-Of-Ten http://vimeo.com/819138 But in each case I need to consider who that is hard for, and how we accommodate without separating.
And, I’ll note again, that the designer of the classroom-as-we-know-it, William Alcott, stated in that 1832 book which gave you the room you have, that students of every age needed to go outside at least every 20 minutes, to walk in “the garden,” to experience the weather, to see the planet. And he was saying that about kids who lived fully in the world, who never rode in cars or played a board game – much less an Xbox – or even, among 99%, ever held a book while outside of school. If he knew that then, why do we think our kids’ needs are any less now?
But finally, tech develops and becomes portable. From Gutenberg it took 300 years before anyone ever read a book outside, and it was the 1890s before that became common, and the 1930s (paperbacks) before it became inexpensive. (Abe Lincoln never carried books home from school and did homework by firelight, there were never more than one book per classroom when he was a student, and homework wasn’t possible until the very end of the 19th Century)
But books got cheaper and lighter, pencils were invented, so was cheap machine-made paper. Eventually pens even became things which could be carried, and notebooks and sketchpads were invented. And now a kid might sit in a park and draw the flowers, or read poetry.
Our tech is moving the same way. Augmented Reality will soon let you walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and have your phone not disconnect you – but connect you – as it demonstrates the impact of your weight and the wind on the structure, or suggests that you peer down at the tidal currents.
Maybe it will get easier. We can hope.
– Ira
I of course don’t think anyone here is saying that – and your post certainly didn’t go there. My rambling comments make it a little hard for even me to see where I’m going with ideas.
I guess I just mean that in a world of black and white, this or that discussions, folks like us that want to blur the lines are seen as not having the guts to go one way or the other. In reality I think the people that are able to say “okay, well maybe some kids play games too much on the computer, but I really think the internet is great for all of these reasons, and maybe we need to find a balance, and nature is awesome so we should push kids to get out there, etc.” are the brave ones. The world doesn’t seem to appreciate these sort of ideas. The ones that don’t have a clear beginning and end. I personally appreciate flip-flopping. Makes me realize someone is human.
The 1:1 classroom that I want is one where students are 1:1 with content, each other, and the instructor/facilitator.
I understand the student who is difficult to draw out, but also see that this is uncommon. Dangers of the 1:1 tech room are that students will take it as an invitation to isolate when they may have otherwise engaged.
We are no longer in a time when school is where your tech needs are met. Most individuals have better tech in their pockets or in their homes. Tech rich schools with qualified facilitators are becoming less rare, but are still rare.
Schools still have a need to model the types of diversity of interests and behaviors that are necessary to be a well-rounded citizen. Responsible media usage, tech usage, and maybe even moreso–the removal of novelty and integration of the 1:1 human interface rather than the GUI is needed in some cases.
In the same way the RTI needs to mean ‘response to Individuals,’ 1:1 needs to be more about education plans and actions than technology.
Dr. Timony,
The sad thing I see is when 1:1 and other “new tech” reinforces the worst of what we do. I do not like “all the same 1:1” because it automatically allows the opposite of what you are asking for. If everyone has the same – iPad, chair, desk, book, content, whatever – mass instruction is actually encouraged.
Just like in most classrooms I see the IWB is not a giant touchscreen computer used by students, but a reinforcement of the teaching wall, and where seating balls have replaced chairs they have typically replaced chairs for every student.
All this leaves us no closer to “Response to Individuals” than we were before.
– Ira Socol
Quick note: As an ESL teacher I have many students who are difficult to draw out and the use of tech has allowed them a platform to share their learning in ways I never thought possible. Going back to many of the points Ira has made, some kids do benefit and actually need the tools.
On another note, just because kids have tech in their pockets means they know what to do with it as a learning tool. Sure they are surrounded by screens, but I hope the time they are using it in my class it helps them think differently both about the tool itself and the world it connects them to.
Isn’t at least part of our jobs as teachers to expose students to things they wouldn’t otherwise? Honestly, I think that may be the role I have chosen as a teacher. My question Jabiz is can we accept the choices the students make after we show them what we care about and they reject it? Do we have the right to expect the kids to find value in what we want them to find value in?
I really wonder if it is our expectations that are the problem, not the kids choices. Somewhere someone is playing Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”…
I think the answer to that, William, has to do with just being a good role model. Beyond that, we just have to hope we’ve done the best we can as we let go and allow our students to find their own balance.
Great questions. I agree with Adrienne. That all we can do is model what we feel true and hope it sticks with some of the kids. Hopefully even their rejection of what we have modeled will be a learning experience for them and for us.
Your blog is blowing up 🙂 Congratulations, you deserve it.
If we want our students to spend more time outside, we need to spend more time outside. If we want our students to be more active, we need to be more active. I believe that the power we have as models for our children and students is immeasurable. I have pondered the idea of a screen-free Friday for myself for some time now, but have not been brave enough to go for it. Not so much because of what my day may look like, but because of what my next day may look like with the ammassed email waiting patiently for me to return. But still I wonder what such an act could do for the people around me and anyone who knows what I am doing. If nothing else it can act as a forced moment to think about our hyper-connected “needs”.
I think your ideas to introduce unplugged days at certain times is great. I am surprised that you have not already introduced these, actually. Some ideas?
* Start with one day maybe and then reflect with them.
* Have an entire lesson outside with no electronics allowed.
* Encourage them to stop by your classroom in the morning and drop off their cel phones (in a safe, of course :)) and pick them up at the end of the day…or after the weekend???
* Maybe do the same yourself. Then all of you reflect on this, discuss, explore.
Here is one interesting idea, albeit in a University class…
http://chronicle.com/article/Thoreaus-Cellphone-Experiment/125962/
It is good to see a self-proclaimed techie teacher thinking about these things.
Ivan,
I continue to worry about “no tech days” because tech is essential for a significant group of students.
I’ll put it this way: Would you have a “no tech day” where students could not wear eyeglasses? Prosthetic limbs? Use wheelchairs?
For most “students with disabilities” in any school, Text-To-Speech readers and keyboarding or speech recognition are essential to their being able to participate and communicate. We have fought so long and hard for Universal Design, that I do not want to lose that – or to publicly relabel all kids with differences, in pursuit of a Thoreau ideal.
So, every suggestion you have made separates about 20% of the student body from their place in humanity, and I ask that you reconsider.
– Ira Socol
Why not make exceptions? Why not make it voluntary?
Because I don’t want “Special Needs” kids to have to be “the exceptions.” That’s what they are now. If any kids don’t want to carry/use digital devices, that’s fine, but when the teacher or school comes down on one side of this decision, a whole group of kids is marginalized.
– Ira Socol
I think we are talking about two different things. When I talk about being disconnected, I envision students not having access to Instant Messaging, text messaging, facebook, email, youtube, etc… I am not picturing students necessarily not using any piece of technology (where would the line be drawn anyways?). What most concerns me is students constant need to be so heavily connected to their friends at all times and the inability to spend some time on their own.
Ira,
I see a parallel between this and how Moishe Feldenkrais thought about movement. When we first shifted our daughter from physical therapy to Feldenkrais Functional Integration instead, the instructor said about AFOs, imagine if you limited a person to just three words. That has always stuck with me.
If our daughter didn’t have a wheelchair for one day, she could propel herself by doing a kind of commando crawl. She uses her arms to drag the rest of her body behind her. She gets around surprisingly fast. Now if she couldn’t have access to her wheelchair for a week, say, that would be a huge problem.
My husband would not be able to function without his glasses. He’s the only man I’ve ever watched shave by touch. After eighteen years, I am still marvel at it. Then again, if he were blind, what else would he do?
I lived with only a clock radio and an electric typewriter for eight years. Now I cannot imagine being without technology. When I was without technology recently, I was at a distinct disadvantage.
I think it would be a mistake to go the Thoreau route. Peace and quiet for a weekend, maybe, but for longer? Not a good idea. I’ve been commenting here about the benefit of foursquare, of all things. Entirely rethinking my feelings about it. Instead of thinking this is really frivolous, I am now thinking this is a great way to stay connected and perhaps even safe.
You are right about ensuring that people with disabilities are kept part of the community. Our daughter is not part of the community at least not in any active way. And she would dearly love to be. She needs more technology. Not a no tech day. She doesn’t need peace and quiet. She is too much in her head as it is.
Wow! So many great thread within threads here. Let me try and address these points.
Ivan,
I agree that modeling behavior is key and part of why I wrote this post is because I am terrified to do this myself. I have become so connected that I have anxiety about tuning out. So before I do anything else, I think you are right I should have screen free days and monitor the effects. Or sell it to the kids as let’s do it together type thing. I am loving this idea and will try to document what we learn. Thanks for the idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it either.
Now onto the Deb and Ira’s points about kids who need technology. You make very valid points and as an ESL teacher I understand. It often helps my students to have tech tools so they can communicate more easily and without the tools they would have a more difficult time.
Not to diminish the struggle and difficulty people have dealing with special needs, but couldn’t we argue that any time spent to do something different for the sake of reflection is worthwhile.
Couldn’t that time teach us why we love or need a certain tool? Before you think me callous, I am just saying what sometimes maybe being without things that are essential we learn their true value.
I am sure the people in the examples you gave do not need to go without their wheel chair or glasses to understand their value and effects on their lives, but wouldn’t a short period without help to consolidate that understanding?
Also wouldn’t going without as a group, help students who do not need the tech see the value and need it has for some members of their community?
I just feel there is value of breaking from habits as a reflective tool. And yes I understand the examples you gave our not habit but necessity.
Jabiz,
Having spent all Friday considering the ideas surrounding “Human+”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnDYaKRVMyo
I think it is important to keep this going.
As an IBM report said over 20 years ago, “For some technology makes things easier, for others it makes things possible.”
So yes, there’s value in learning “self” – whatever “self” may be, but what value might there be for a student if the school takes away his/her ability to move, see, hear, read, write, communicate? And when does any school get to do that?
Take away my computer or phone and instantly I can not write, take notes, read a lot of things. Take away many “tech devices” I help kids with and they can not speak, or move. Take away a child’s glasses, and…
But there are two other things – first, we can do without these things but we become completely dependent, and that is humanity robbing – and second, if we are the only people getting to use a device – I was one of 25 people on a 20,000 student university campus once using computers for reading – we are labelled – branded as it is – in ways not always pleasant.
So the continuous connection Ivan (logically) wishes to break, may be my shared notetaking with a non-“disabled” student, or a deaf student’s ability to hear his or her classmates (via text/IM, the world’s current favourite deaf communication system), or the reverse, the ability of some students to speak to others. A simple example? http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2011/01/messages.html the sign in this post – even though it does not apply to students with mobility impairments, means a wheelchair-using student never gets to “walk upstairs” with friends.
So for the child who cannot hold a pencil well enough to draw, I’m perfectly in favour of physical therapy – to a point – but she might need that camera out on a walk in order to understand her world and express herself, and if she is the only one with a camera, we have labelled her “the retard,” “the crip,” “the gimp.”
So it is complex. And I think we model, we suggest, we investigate. But we do not ban.
– Ira Socol
Ira as I mentioned in a comment to Deb, I appreciate and applaud your passionate voice for students who need technology to function. I would go further to say that I understand the need most of us to use technology in ways that help us connect and communicate. I hope you have gotten enough of an impression of me online to know that I live and breathe this stuff. I am always looking for ways to use tech to help both me and students understand the world in new and creative ways.
I am not saying we should ban tech and by doing so make students who are dependent on it feel ostracized. I am simply saying that working at a 1:1 school, tech is always hovering as a way to “use” it effectively and I get that and try my best to do so.
But there is no doubt that the way we connect with technology, primarily social networks is changing the way we interact and communicate. Bot in good, sorry great ways, but also in ways that can be confusing to understand if you have never tried it differently.
For example, a simple conversation over coffee outside, maybe beneficial for the teenager used to only texting friends.
Both are valid forms of communication, I am not saying one is more valid than the other, but in such a tech crazed world, it would behoove us as educators to occasionally slow down and help our students disconnect to see what the world looks like form a different perspective. I am not saying we create uncomfortable mandatory unplugged days that will isolate and make students feel uncomfortable, but rather community building says where we simply do things differently.
I understand what you are saying about the stigma of banning, and will consider it in my approach to my pedagogy. I will also watch that video later tonight. Thanks again for engeging me so deeply on this topic.
Of course the real problem comes back to the issue of balance. Any tool is great, when used correctly and for the right reasons. I often make the analogy to a hammer. The hammer is a great tool and it works brilliantly when you need a nail pounded into wood, but would you use it to remove a screw from metal? Would you use it to place a new memory chip inside your computer? Would you hit yourself on the hit with it in order to scratch an itch on the top of your head? I sincerely hope the answer to these questions are no. It is our job, nay our duty, to help students see when and how to use the tool.
A couple of our PE teachers have been struggling with this issue, because they are of the mind that more screen time is a poor choice when students are using computers so much already and I agree. PE can use technology to record, track, and compare perform or teach a new skill or activity, but let’s not have PE become another computer course — it needs to be PE! I think part of the problem is that we start being to worried about using the computer all the time and we push this need on our students; we need to be open to their abilities as well. When I did the Satirical Comic Book project with my class, I gave them as many options as possible. I asked them to use Comic Life and photos, if they didn’t feel like drawing. Many of my students felt like drawing free-hand and then scanning the drawing and using the images in Comic Life; this was not exactly how I envisioned the final product, but I allowed them to do it, because the final product is actually theirs, not mine; their vision, their creativity, their desire. If that involves technology, great; and if it doesn’t involve technology, great; and if it involves some hybrid of tech and non-tech, even better, because that is where balance lives — in the hybrid situations. Where students see the connection between the traditional way of doing something and the enhancement of using modern tools to reach the final goal. So I say to unplug or not to unplug isn’t the problem, the problem is allowing and guiding students (and ourselves) to unplug when we want and need to and when we see that it is the better solution. How to do this? Take them on walks in parks; have discussions with them; provide tech and non-tech options for assignments; allow them to have a vision; show them examples; show them art — both digital and non-digital; read them poems from the Tao Te Ching; answer their questions with more questions; make them think for themselves; show them the value of reading a book, listening to music, feeling and hearing silence; teach them to explore, create, and share. How you ask? And I answer, anyway you can.
Thanks Tim. I think you echo what Ivan was saying and I think I just needed the reminder. As one of the major proponent of tech at a 1:1 school where not every one is on board, I think I sometimes feel pressure o be hyper-tech, but the reality is that I need to slow down myself and find the hybrid situation and model that.
By doing so I can better help the teachers who are hesitant about tech in the first place.
I am conflicted when it comes to the discussion about all the same 1:1 when I look at providing students equal opportunity in a classroom. Recently my students were asked to make a documentary, and students that had access to iMovie did significantly better than those that didn’t have access to a Mac. If we level the playing field, we give students the same opportunity to succeed. When I teach, I don’t want my students to have ten different editions of Jane Eyre.
In the discussion about too much screen time, I agree 100% that we need to model what we preach. There is a rule of no screens after school at my house. My three children play outside every day after school. After dinner, we power back on for homework, but my children don’t see us sitting in front of a TV during the day, watching the world happen around us. Balance is the key and teachers need to know that it is OK to have both in their classrooms.
Just because we give students a pencil, it doesn’t need to be used in every class all day long. When schools move toward 1:1 programs, administrators need to be clear to teachers that all types of learning are valued.
Dana,
If you go up to my first comment, indeed to the original post, you’ll see that the issue you describe is really a problem of mass instruction. If you are asking each individual student to do the same thing at the same time, then, yes, your students all need one device – be it a No. 2 pencil or a MacBook.
But I hope as we move beyond Gutenberg we will take the opportunity to stop doing that.
So, if you had asked different students to create presentations of some sort, rather than “make a movie.” And if you had allowed them to group themselves so different machines could perform different tasks, you’d be fine with differing machines and you might get the human interaction Jabiz is seeking.
My goal is not to be critical, but to suggest that there is little reason to adopt new technologies if we don’t use them to overturn the last century and a half of industrialized education and mass instruction.
– Ira Socol
My students were not asked to “make a movie” they were asked to collectively make a documentary that educated others about social issues from the Industrial Revolution that still have an effect on society today. I make every attempt to move away from the industrialized education model of yesterday. I do not pre-describe what tools they can use, or have a set agenda of what any assignment should look like. Creativity is modeled and valued in every aspect of the class. I don’t believe I ask my students to do the same thing at the same time. In groups of three the students created storyboards, collected images and analyzed data. The human interaction is there in so many meaningful ways.
At the end of the day, leveling the playing field and providing students with equal chances of success does not equal mass instruction. Expecting every paper & project to look the same, there in lies the problem. I don’t ever want my students to make cookie cutter assignments, but if they don’t have the similar ingredients to help them get started, how is that fair?
I truly apologise Dana if I made bad assumptions, but I am also confused. If this was “collectively mak[ing] a documentary” how did “students that had access to iMovie [do] significantly better than those that didn’t have access to a Mac”? They did “better” at what?
If it was collective, then all students had access to all machines, or to tasks appropriate to their devices, which is what Jabiz and I were saying at the top. If it was collective it was a group learning activity. Did those without Macs learn less about the Industrial Revolution? Did those without Macs discuss the ongoing ramifications less deeply?
Perhaps if you explain the project to us in a bit more detail, we’ll understand the multi-device issue more clearly…
– Ira Socol
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Wow! Thanks everyone for a great discussion. Lot’s to think about for sure. I appreciate everyone’s input. I will soon share my own personal unplugged time plan and results.
Don’t think I am closing this thread with this last comment. I am just wiped out. Keep going by all means and I will jump back in soon 🙂
My husband could not go without his glasses. If I move them on him he asks, “OK, who moved the glasses on the blind guy?” It’s really not an option. He wouldn’t be able to drive. He wouldn’t be able to read. I genuinely worry that he may lose his eyesight some day. He’s a techie. He is younger than me, and he requires large print. He really does shave by touching his face as he goes along. I would guess that blind men don’t do much differently.
Our older daughter, or Kid O for the sake of brevity, has so little all ready. She is severely disabled. She needs help with everything. She is not in her wheelchair 24/7. And, actually, when she is home rolling on the floor, I think it is a bit of a break.
Kid O all ready spends a lot of time alone with her own thoughts. I bet she’d love to be able to carry on a conversation beyond answering “Yes” and “No.” She listens very intently, but she cannot express an opinion. She’s almost fifteen. I bet she has a lot of opinions.
When Kid O was little and still fit into a stroller, we went by a store. Guy made art glass and he was standing outside for some air. As we walked by he said how he’d love to be pushed around similarly. I responded by saying she’d give anything to be able to stand and walk.
If she had no wheelchair, she may not mind, but would be a hardship on my husband and me. You know how she is weighed at the pediatrician’s office? First the nurse weighs me. Then she has me hold her in front of me. Whenever I have to do that I am silently hoping that the nurse is quick. Kid O is almost as tall as me and probably around seventy-five pounds. (I’m only 5’2″) I have compressed discs in my lower back from carrying her. There are times when I cannot straighten up. She is getting so hard to lift that even my 5’9″ and very fit husband is finding it harder to carry her, winter jacket and gym shoes and all, to her wheelchair. We are going to have to invest in another piece of technology — a lift in order to be able to keep her at home. We are going to have to finally have our minivan redone so that we can roll her chair in and strap her down like they do in her school bus. This past Friday afternoon, it took three of us to get her into her booster seat. Her teacher, who is a fairly large man, a member of school security, and me. With a willful special needs teenager like Kid O, we need more technology not less.
Thoreau may seem really idyllic, and, being a died in the wool romantic, I do get wistful for times without technology of any kind. But Kid O without technology is anything but romantic. It is not Christina’s World Kid O might enjoy the texture of the grass, but trying to crawl, using only her arms would exhaust her.
Thing is, Kid O doesn’t need to know what it’s like without technology. She’s been either without or underserved by it for her entire life. Instead people need to see if they can image what it’s like to be Kid O and see if they could sustain it. And that includes being toileted. And it also includes not being able to talk. In any kind of way. Just the most primal of sounds.
Not very romantic.
That said I can see how no tech day could be good for many people, students and teachers alike. Just that as with choices of what tech is used, should be a choice.
Thanks again Deb for your well thought-out and personal stories of sharing. You make some great points. As Ivan mentioned earlier,
You are right forcing kids who need technology for day-to-day survival and happiness is not a fair thing to do, but to ask students who are using technology habitually based on not knowing alternatives might prove to be useful. Every once in a while.
And Throueau will always have a special place in my heart. Just sayin’
This is an easy one Jabiz. Inquiry learning requires that you get your ‘hands dirty’. Technology tools are merely that – just tools for capture and creation. Content is what matters. Authentic content rules over content that has been gather from online. Today I spent a lot of time crawling around the garden at SWA trying to photograph butterflies. Why? Grade 1 is studying about the garden as a habitat and I was curious to know just how many kinds of butterflies are on campus. Which will leave the most lasting impact on the students (enduring understanding) – a collection of pictures of butterflies taken from online – or a collection of photos taken by teachers and students from the garden at school?
Thanks Jane, You make a great point, much like Ivan and Tim mentioned we need to create hybrid situations that lead to inquiry based learning. I know this. I was just stopping a minute to think out loud. Didn’t think I’d get this big of a reaction. Though I a glad I did.
Sometimes being so tech focused, I forget to slow down and literary smell the roses. This post and the reactions was a nice reminder.
I’ve just been drafting a post with basically the same ideas and the same conclusions (or lack thereof).
I have been very happy with the nature writing I’ve been doing with one of my classes and will likely continue and expand — not so much for the writing output but for the experience of solitude and reflection outside the classroom.
Gosh, this is all a bit deep and meaningful eh?
To me, it seems we need to teach kids about the importance of self-management (to use PYP language) or self-regulating our behavior. This applies to all sorts of things, naturally, but especially our use of tech. How much is too much? How do we know? What do we need to be aware of and/or consider? Of course what we teach, we must also model!
It’s tricky when we start bandying about blanket statements like we should have tech-free days – numerous commenters have illustrated perfectly valid reasons why this would not be a great idea for some students (and I daresay teachers as well).
[as an aside, I used to say to my students (when I had a class) I can promise you I will always try to treat you all fairly, but I won’t try to treat you all the same.]
I believe in the value of being present and disconnecting, but I think that to assume that by switching off our devices we are switching on to focused interactive attention with those around us, or becoming at one with nature is a little idealistic.
For me, using tech is primarily a means of creation, communication and sharing. Assuming online relationships are less valuable than face-to-face ones is another bone of contention for me.
The desire for connection with others is human nature. Why is it that despite being able to chat, video conference and collaborate with others online, we are still driven to meet them face-to-face? I always say that the best thing about a conference is the opportunity to meet face-to-face with some of my friends. In this way, I feel tech is helping to communicate, not inhibit it.
Assuming that all tech use is negative and all offline behavior is positive is equally ridiculous.
When kids were writing notes in class, did we take away their pencils? Technology is not good or bad, it just is. I remember hiding in my wardrobe at home so I could keep talking to a friend after lights-out – and that was with one of the first cordless phones – about the size/weight of your average brick…
I do feel a little defensive about the use of tech. I guess in my role (Digital Literacy Coach), I spend most of my time trying to convince teachers to integrate it more into their classrooms and beyond, so I suppose that is natural.
Jane made an excellent point about documenting learning using the cameras/videos. A lot of our work with kids centres around this type of thing – K1 kids using the digital microscopes to look at centipedes and aphids they have collected from the school garden, using apps like Sonic Pics to share findings of a shape hunt around the playground. Our wonderful Chinese teacher created an ePub for kids to use on their field trip around Chinatown – notes were emailed when they returned to school (and of course, the wifi).
I don’t think there are any easy answers, but this an important conversation to have. Perhaps that is enough.
Yes. Yes. and yes. Thank you for grounding me and this talk. I think you did a fantastic job of putting everything in perspective. I especially like the following points. Great to keep in mind, next time I freak out:
Assuming that all tech use is negative and all offline behavior is positive is equally ridiculous.
to assume that by switching off our devices we are switching on to focused interactive attention with those around us, or becoming at one with nature is a little idealistic.
Assuming online relationships are less valuable than face-to-face ones is another bone of contention for me.
Talk about deep and meaningful!
Well said KLB (if a bit long-winded! 🙂 )!
The concept of self-regulation has always been a tricky one to navigate. On one hand we strictly regulate the amount of screen time for our children – the eldest is only 6 after all; on the other I’ve been sitting in front of my computer most of the day and most of the night. Am I being hypocritical or showing an inability to self-regulate?
Now that I think more about it, I wonder what the root of the concern is? Is it that people are doing something solitary? (How many people would freak out if one of their students decided to spend the entire weekend in their bedroom reading the collected works of Hunter S. Thompson or Jane Austen?) Is it that people are doing something sedentary? (6 people around a poker table is social, but 6 people playing Wii is a concern?) Is it that they are indoors instead of enjoying the fresh air? (What if we took our iPads outside?) Is it that what they are doing is considered an enormous time-suck? (“Stop reading the interwebs and go hang out at the mall!”)
Like many have said already in this thread, it is all about balance. But this balance also applies to the techno-phobes and techno-doubters: come and see what all these people are doing with their technology, and do it with an open mind. Don’t make assumptions about what they are doing; sit down with them and find out.
Clint, I have to say you did an excellent job of getting me to think about what it is people are worried about. I love your point:
This is the message I want to share with parents.
As for being long-winded, it’s a natural side-effect from following Jabiz online I think…
ahh.. I love how you’ve inserted another IB Learner profile attribute in here… “Open-Minded.” Yes, I am a bit of an IB geek.
Hi Jabiz,
I don’t think I could add much after such a long list of pro and against arguments. Truth is that I am a geeky educator and I think I am too enthusiastic about tech (we are also a 1:1 school).
After I watched this though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDa1Ek3LVlc I began to reconsider my position. I want my students to play, laugh, get messy, move…to the same extent I want them to be able to use technology. The word that comes to mind is BALANCED and I am relieved that I am not the only one reflecting on how and how often we use technology in the classroom.
Thanks for a great blog entry!
Cristina, that was the exact video I was searching for on Twitter last night – I had lost it amongst my many bookmarks. Thanks so much for including it.
I’ve had very valuable online relationships since October ’98. (Probably makes me a newie in this group.)
Although I was in Chicago and this man and his SO were in Houston, I helped them when they were in a difficult spot. When this man, Rusty, a Korean War vet, got really ill, one of his sons attempted to assume guardianship. He moved Rusty to the other end of the city, and far from his SO. Actually had him in a psych ward, at one point. I researched elder law attorneys and since he and SO had been living together for a number of years and Texas allowed for common law marriage, all they had to do was to publicly start calling each other husband and wife and that was the start of liberating Rusty from son’s control. He and his SO were very grateful to me for doing that, and she eventually moved him closer to their townhome. Unfortunately he never did make it all the way home. Through negligence of previous nursing home staff, he suffered a hip fracture in several places. One thing too many for him to overcome. He died shortly thereafter. I lost track of his SO. She herself had medical issues. She called me once about six months after he passed away and that was it. But I was glad that I had this connection. Rusty was one of those rare people who really did know how to love unconditionally, and he was always bolstering me through many trials and tribulations. All online through the span of a number of years. I only spoke to him twice. The last time was to hear him say, “Get me out of this foxhole.” I helped him do that at least.
So for anyone who thinks that online connections are frivolous or not as legitimate as real face to face ones, I would beg to differ. Sometimes we have the good fortune to finally meet someone up close and personal, but other times we just know each other through the monitor. Isn’t connection all the matters regardless of what form it takes? Community takes all forms. I am fortunate to have all kinds of people who have enriched my life whether it’s online or there is physical proximity.
I LOVE that the word “balanced” keeps being mentioned here! IB Learner Profile for the win! 🙂
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