The New Technology in Schools–Is it a Plus?  

By Tom Anselm

Books, pencils, pens. Red Chief manila-paper tablets. Blackboards and chalk dust. Teacher lectures, notetaking. Listening. The Zaner-Bloser method of cursive writing. An occasional movie, and always about something as exciting as “Pig Farming in Equatorial Africa” or “The History of England’s Rise to Power in the Middle Ages.” Riveting film.

And always with the huge metal reel and unmistakable ‘click-click-click-click’ of the green 16mm movie projector. Tests every week, college-rule looseleaf, spiral notebooks, mimeographed worksheets. Remember the smell of fresh mimeo? Ahhh… chemicals!

That was school in my day.

Today, for better or worse, things are much different. So many schools now have equipped each student with a personal computer in the form of book-sized electronic tablets that the kids tote with them from class to class. This system allows the teachers to display the lessons on SmartBoards, which also are in almost every classroom. Students can learn from youTube, online news, lessons designed just for individual use. Thanks goodness for electricity, that’s for sure.

And for the benefactors who provide the cash for these technological innovations, be they parents or school board members or companies that pony up with grants.

I have seen both systems in operation, the paper-based and the tech-based, that is. First as a student myself, then as a teacher, and now as a substitute surrounded by kids who are so much more technically savvy than I.

Well, I have tried to keep up, old fuddy-duddy that I am. I have an

i-phone. I can text, put stuff on youTube, send videos from my phone, ‘google’ for answers all the time, download ‘apps’. I ask Siri to make calls for me and get directions. She is so very helpful. I tried Twitter, but that just became a pain in the neck and a waste of time. I never read the daily newspaper anymore, getting a lot of my news from that handy computer in my back pocket…ie, my little ol’ mobile, as they say in England.

But the Lovely Jill and I still go to our grandkids now and then for

tech support. These older ones are very hip on this stuff. It is their world now. It is how they communicate. For today’s youth, to not be connected is to be a social pariah, an outcast, a loser.   It may overtake some of their lives, but that is another story for another day. And I often find myself asking: is this technology better for learning than what got us to where we are today?

Let’s take a look at what’s floating around out there on the good ol’ ‘Inter-webs’ about this subject.

At least 70% and probably more of kids 12-17 have a cell phone,

according to Pew Research Center. And of those, a third of them have a type of smartphone, a ‘veritable education in your pocket,’ as one researcher puts it. Now, methinks this number is low, based on what I have seen. Girls walking around with phones in hand at all places and times, boys sitting at a mall, looking down as if praying, but alas, just texting. A telling point is that it makes no never-mind ones race, income or ethnicity. Cell phone use cuts across those delineations. Which could be seen as a good thing. You know, the ‘level playing field’ argument?

A lot of the advantages of technology in schools read like common sense notions.

The future worker will need to know how to use devices and data analysis. There can be an abundance of sources open to kids that never were before. Just be careful to ‘vett’ those sources, say the pros. Technology lends itself to collaboration in projects and improves research, while offering instructors a wide variety of sources from which to develop lessons.

Digitalized texts allow for more frequent updating with new

information. The use of devices can put the responsibility in the hands of the students, and make learning more active rather than the more passive lecture/note method. A caution here, if you will. The first part of the previous sentence, putting the kid in charge, can be risky. One cannot tell a 13 year old ‘here is your chromebook, pal. Here are the websites to use.   Here are your assignments. It’s all due by Friday. Have a nice day!’

Ya gotta have checks and rechecks, just like in the old days when we used that stuff made out of trees and graphite. And while lectures can be boring, don’t underestimate the need to actively teach listening skills. Not everything can be solved with an app or visit to Siri and his/her colleague Google. And also, take care that these devices do not become a mere babysitting tool, or revert to mere free time usage. Oh, and if your school does have a good supply of devices, that someone qualified oversees the care, maintenance and updating of this usually significant investment of parent/taxpayer dollars.

When it comes to kids learning, there shouldn’t be one rock left

unturned when investigating what works. Today’s use of technology in the classroom should always be evaluated against actual achievement. Just having a great set of tools doesn’t mean the job can get done. (I know that from my do-it-yourself plumbing experiences.)

Educators and parents, as well as school boards, must constantly be asking the question, ‘are all these costly devices really helping my kid learn?’ In my mind, the jury is still out on this subject.

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