One of my first experiences with computers was in grade 6 and 7 when my teacher would take us to the school computer lab outfitted with brand new Macintosh Plus computers. I was under the impression that computers were primarily used as fancy typewriters because all we did was practice our typing with cotton placemats over our hands. At the time, students who were “good” at computers were those who could type more than 35 words per minute. Fast forward 20 years and I am now the teacher of a grade 6/7 split classroom after starting my career teaching senior math and science. It was great to see that the computer lab has morphed into laptop carts and that my district has fully adopted Bring Your Own Device programs throughout its schools. I was amazed that in a class of 27, all but one brought in a personal device to school each day. These 11 and 12-year-olds were already familiar with Google Apps for Education (something I had just learned a few years prior) and they could acquire, interpret and present information to an astonishingly high level. There were still the usual frustrations- student’s forgetting passwords, wifi deciding to stop working…- but these students were using technology beyond my wildest dreams of 20 years ago. I wondered, beyond not being taught cursive writing anymore, what other skills are this demographic of learners not being taught in place of developing their skills in technology? What are the consequences of such an early adoption of devices in the classroom? I will admit, I am a huge advocate of technology in the classroom and strongly believe we need to keep working towards greater accessibility to computers but I am also wary of any unintended consequences that will undoubtedly arise.
Hi Bryn,
I have similar memories of our “computers class” when I was in middle school, with placemats over our hands (ours were red felt as I recall) typing along with the sentences given to us by the typing program. So much has changed since then and I too feel we need to be aware of the potential consequences of the introduction of digital technologies at an increasing rate and young age. Having said that, I am also very aware of integrating technology into the classroom so that students are able to navigate and use various digital technologies as learning and research tools to help them in the future. My grade 4/5 class has a number of students from families who live in poverty, so BYOD is not possible; however, the interesting thing is that almost all of those families have some type of gaming device at home (i.e., PlayStation) complete with games like Grand Theft Auto 5 (this has been the most talked-about game by my students since coming back to school after Christmas break). Parents are attempting to keep up with digital technology trends, but are only supporting the popular gaming trends, rather than providing possible educational supports at home. The students I teach generally have good skills as far as turning on and navigating a digital system, but the ability to use digital technology as a learning tool is a significant weakness for many of them. These points concern me for two reasons. First, students whose home life supports gaming, but not educationally-based digital technology may begin to fall behind peers in terms of developing educational/job-related technology skills that will be necessary for their futures. Second, as children/youth spend more and more time using digital technology in all aspects of their lives, what consequences will we see in the future?
If you are interested, here is the URL for a document titled “Digitizing literacy: reflections on the haptics of writing” written by Anne Mangen (The National Centre for Reading Education and Research, University of Stavanger, Norway) and Jean-Luc Velay (Mediterranean Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, CNRS, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France): http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/9927.pdf
I forgot to include the citation for the link and I cannot figure out how to edit a comment (maybe it is not possible?): Mangen, A. and Velay, J-L. (2010). Digitalizing literacy: Reflections on the haptics of writing. Advances in Haptics, Mehrdad Hosseini Zaden (Ed.), Intech.
Mary,
Thank you for sharing your reflection and the link. I look forward to having a look through “Digitizing Literacy” this weekend. I share your concern that some families choose to invest in recreational over educational technologies for their children. Hopefully, we see an improvement in the future as the public mindset continues to see the power of technology within education.
Your question regarding what skills are potentially being lost in favour of technology resonates with me and some of the battles I have been fighting this year with some of my students. Today, I had a ten minute discussion with a grade 6 boy about how yes,, the vocabulary words he was trying to find definitions for could indeed be found in the dictionary, and no, he did not need an Ipad or laptop. When I had my grade 6s using books today to conduct research, they were lost without a search bar. Many of my students, including my high school students, struggle with reading cursive. Each of these events or facts is small in and of itself, but when combined with the multitude of other examples that come to mind, there are many skills that I feel are lacking in our students. I am even finding that while many of my students are familiar with technology and its general use, they struggle with EDUCATIONAL uses of technology. While many students seem to be technologically capable, I would stop short of saying that most of them are technologically literate, especially when it comes to digital citizenship. Hopefully, this is something that will change in the future.
I enjoyed reading your memorable experience and the questions you have been left with on the effectiveness of educational technology. It is a question that we should all have a response to by the time we graduate from the MET program and here, you can make progress on it by exploring it in one of our later discussions and assignments. Thank you Bryn for sharing, Samia