In gathering a PLN on Twitter, technology education is emphasized to a very significant degree. While I enjoy technology as much as the next person, I've started to wonder about the perceived "need" to offer a technological component across the curriculum. I've noticed it especially regarding Web 2.0 which I suspect is a term that is unfamiliar to a large % of my school district (students and faculty). Initially, this would seem to confirm the view that we need to be teaching more about this to everyone. However...
I graduated from high school in 1981 (just before the PC), so my district offered zero training from K-12 in the use or existence of computer technology (unless you count typing). In fact, the World Wide Web didn't exist until 7 years after I graduated from college, and yet, here I am, completely functional and using "21st century" skills. So this leads to all sorts of questions re: learning, when it happens, where it happens and how important is it to teach specific skills and specific tools. I mean, our school offers a "Computer Applications" class now that is all about using Microsoft Office. Is this going to go the way of the typing class? Don't have the answers, but it does give me pause when I read all of the proclamations of dire consequence if we don't teach "21st Century" skills now.
2 comments:
Great thought about learning happening when we need it to happen. I, too, took typing in the 8th grade, no computer classes in high school, and was dumped into the world of email and internet (pre-web) in college. I've learned the rest as I've needed it, and one of my favorite classroom applications of this is MS Publisher. Show kids where the templates are, and they figure out the rest. I teach in an urban, low-low-low-low-no income area, and these kids, who don't have computers, still figure some of it out. I am following teachers on twitter with an emphasis on tech learning, but I think that our classroom emphasis needs to be on learning, not tech.
Amy (bridgesa on twitter)
Great thoughts, William. There's a great article on the latest edition of Leading & Learning with Technology that discusses the instructional planning process and how choosing a technology tool should be the last step. To me, this makes sense. It also only makes sense if you believe the primary use of technology in education should be to support "learning." I have found that some in the "21st century learning" boat push classroom technology for the sake of "using the latest tools, because that's what our students are used to." This comes, in my opinion, at the expense of the comments you made about context, access, etc. Solidifying a rationale for using the latest and greatest technology tools can lead to even further investigation, no matter which side you fall on. Does that make any sense?
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