Hello Everyone,
The below is an excerpt from a great article a classmate of mine posted that I thought had a lot of valuable information to offer! Thanks Cheryl! Take a look at the entire article!
TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY 1
Published as:
Swan, K., Lin, L., & van ‘t Hooft, M. (2008). Teaching with (digital)technology. In C. Lassonde, R. Michael, and J. Rivera-Wilson (Eds.),
Current Issues in Teacher Education: History, Perspectives and Implications
. Springfield,IL: Charles C. Thomas Publishing.
Teaching With (Digital) TechnologyKaren Swan, Lin Lin & Mark van ‘t Hooft, Kent State University
“The most pressing strategic problem for the evolution of public education inthe digital age is this: How to restructure a school computer culture that wasshaped by conditions that no longer apply.”
— Seymour Papert (2002)
We begin this chapter with a caveat. Technology has always been a part of schooling; infact, it was the invention and rapid spread of printed texts that made schooling possible(Eisenstein, 1979). However, many other technologies have failed to find any significant place inclassrooms even though they were enthusiastically embraced by educators (Cuban, 1986). In the 20th century alone, technologies such as radio, movies, and television have suffered that fate.. We do not have room to discuss this long history of technological innovations and schooling, so we confine ourselves here to discussing digital technologies. We use the term “digital technologies,”instead of the more common term “computer,” to encompass the wide range of new tools that are being introduced in classrooms as we write; tools such as digital audio and video, mobile devices, podcasting, student response systems, computer-mediated communications, and Internet applications. We also do not have ample space to explore specific technologies and their applications to teaching, learning, and teacher professional development. Instead, we will focus on three interrelated issues that seem to drive debates around digital technologies and education in general.The first issue is centred on digital technologies’
effect on teaching and learning
. Onone side of the debate are educators who contend that technologies have no more effect onlearning than trucks that carry food have on nutrition (Clark, 1983). On the opposite side arethose who argue that technologies are not just delivery mechanisms, but tools that significantlyaffect thinking and learning (McLuhan, 1964) for good (Papert, 1980, 1993) or bad (Mander,1978; Postman, 1985, 1994). Somewhere in the middle is a large group of scholars who arguethat digital technologies have the potential to meaningfully affect classroom learning, but will doso only to the extent that teaching practices change to make use of their unique capabilities(Cuban, 2001; Kozma, 1991; McClintock, 1999).The second major issue concerning digital technologies and education focuses on
how tomake the most effective use of digital technologies in teaching and learning
. Obviously, thisissue is intimately related to the previous one, and even those who argue that digital technologieshave minor or ill effects on learning can argue that it is important to at least teach students about.
TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY 2them. Other focal points of study have included teaching concepts (Sleeman & Brown, 1982),drill and practice of academic skills (Bork, 1985; Suppes, 1988), tools for thinking and learning(Jonassen, 2000), collaborative learning (Scardemalia & Bereiter, 1994), and knowledgeconstruction (Papert, 1980; 1993). Currently, a growing movement among educationaltechnologists favors a ubiquitous computing approach, in which a variety of technologies areavailable for teachers and students to use anywhere, and anytime to support teaching andlearning in a variety of ways (van ‘t Hooft & Swan, 2007).The third big issue in educational technology debates focuses on
teacher professional development, and how to best prepare teachers to teach with digital technologies. Obviously,digital technology uses in the classroom should influence how teachers learn to use them, but inmost cases (with the possible exception of online learning), learning to use digital technologies in education seems strangely divorced from their advocated uses in classroom teaching and learning. In addition, rapidly changing technologies force teachers and teacher educators to constantly examine how they learn and how they help others learn to teach with technologies.”
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Instructional Strategies 