Databus Issue: 2009 2 04/01/2009
Best Practices
Phil Scrivano Vice President of Customer Service
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Technology in the classroom can be a touchy subject for our teachers. Teachers are a group of college educated and credentialed professionals who instruct students. Technology is one of many tools a teacher can choose to invest resources in to deliver curriculum. My career in education began with seven exciting years as a sixth-grade teacher. The first year I was a recipient of a new Apple IIe computer. One application that I remember integrating well into my curriculum was Lego Writer. Students would enter commands in Basic that would cause the pointer to draw a picture. Simple by today's technology, but effective in introducing students to think in a logical manner.
A few years later we were using Internet resources via a 2400 baud modem and Gopher, Archie, Veronica, and FTP searches and commands. The shift in the classroom happened when I realized I was no longer the subject expert for my students. As a credentialed teacher I was now more interested in the curriculum objectives and the delivery of this curriculum in such a way to meet the needs of all my students.
As technologists our job is to facilitate this learning. There are many factors that come into play when technology and classrooms are discussed. Is the minimum now at least one Internet-connected computer and some sort of whole-class, interactive display? I contend the most important factor is the input from the teacher. The balancing act is to be able to introduce and support technology without coming across as telling the credentialed teacher how to do his job. We all know the teachers who will adopt and run with anything you give them. These early adopters often stir desire into the rest of the teaching staff. In our positions we are introduced to many of the latest and greatest things that we can see could have a great impact in the classroom. But each of us can also recall something we championed that the teachers rejected. The key is to keep the pulse of the teaching community in mind when making all our technology decisions.
Another pulse we need to keep aware of is what is happening in higher education. It was higher education that originally integrated Internet resources in the classroom. I remember watching email at the college level then integrating it with my curriculum. The first example we used in the classroom was email from our classroom to space shuttle astronauts about recycling water. Further, as a teacher in a classroom I did not have the ability to call a parent in real time, but with email I was communicating much more effectively with them.
Higher education is now introducing a new tool to the curriculum: Social Networking. In the California UC system, teachers are setting up class groups and integrating the resources of systems like Facebook into their class syllabus. Students and teachers collaborate within these purposed groups to archive curriculum objectives. Students are coming to school prepared to use this media. It will be interesting to watch teacher demand in the K-12 arena start to adopt and see the value in their curriculum. As technologists are we prepared to open these resources and make a best effort at controlling bad stuff just as we do with Internet resources in general? Let's start investigating this question and be ahead of the demand that is at our doorsteps and on our desktops.
