For my interview I spoke with a friend who has recently graduated from his bachelor of education program at UVIC and has a gotten a job as a substitute teacher with the North Vancouver School board. He has teaches secondary level PE and Science courses. As a new teacher I thought it would be a great opportunity to discuss how his experience being taught how to use technology in the science classroom compares with the reality of using technology in the classroom.
While our conversation inevitably deviated from this route, I found that he had a number of interesting insights about the reality of teaching with technology
Purpose
Alex described his inquiry project where they had to ask a specific question bout instruction and technology and then develop. Is technology useful and what are the problems around using technology and how can these be solved. Within the scope of this project he researched a number of different apps that could be used within the classroom. He was specifically draw to the virtual dissection apps as they solved a specific need inside of the classroom – the removal of live/real dissections from the curriculum. The way that Alex saw it is that these apps provided him with a tool to be able to provide a simulated experience to his students. In many ways he found that these simulations would be more beneficial than the real thing as they provided students with a standardized experience. However he also found real challenges in using this sort of technology as many of the existing lesson plans that align with provincial curriculum don’t fit or align with the content that the virtual dissections highlight or use. So Alex found that in many cases while the tech itself had implicit value, it would take a significant rewriting of lesson plans to make using some of these tools useful or valuable. It brought to mind the importance of establishing purpose before choosing the technology
Preparation
One of the considerations that Alex pointed out a number of times in our conversation was the importance of preparation when it came to using any tech in his courses. Alex introduced me to a quizzing app called Kahoot that he and a number of other in service teachers use across North Vancouver. Alex uses this tool mostly for lesson review. I was interested in hearing if he was able to use it or other tools like it in a more improvised scenario, for example launching a quiz in a middle of a lesson to make sure that everyone was on the same page or to re-engage a distracted/unmotivated classroom. However Alex was quick to point out the importance of preparation. That the questions that he uses through this tool are carefully thought out to review specific content within the lesson and that this is aligned with the lesson plan. This makes sense, with the number of variables coming at teachers within the classroom, preparation is key. However I am wondering how this response would differ after a couple more years of experience in the classroom!
Distraction
Finally we talked about how he has overcome some of the challenges in the classroom that he has faced when using technology. Specifically those students that are distracted by the temptation of the multiverse that is the Internet; Accessing games, social media, news, etc. when they should be focusing on the assigned task. As we all know this is one of the real challenges faced by any educator when introducing a internet capable device into the classroom. Alex talked about how these tools don’t have any limiters placed on them, no browser lockdowns, etc. that could help police students use. Rather he finds he wanders the classroom catching students and having to close down distractor windows himself (not the best use of his time). Alex solution when the classroom is getting out of hand with distractions is to remove the distractor. Saying if they are not actually using the technology/tool for the purpose that it was intended then they don’t need to use it at all. While this is certainly a strategy I wonder if he is missing the real cause, that students are not engaged in the activity that they are using the tool for? Is this less an indicator of classroom management and more an indicator of a lesson that needs to be re-tooled?
One final thing that Alex brought up in this interview that I thought was interesting was the impact that school budgets and administration decisions have on what he is able to do in the classroom. Alex used an example of a school that had the budget to purchase new technology in the classroom. The decision was between tablets or laptops. Each tool has their own benefits and draw backs, the decision to go either way will limit what teachers can do in the classroom. Some of the strategies don’t play well on laptop (think AR/VR) or on a tablet (word processing). So at a very high level the technology that is available within your school can shape how you teach in the classroom.