Powering Up … continued again
From Chapter 1:
“Much early research on using computers in classrooms is striking for its failure to consider teachers as active agents in children’s learning with computers. It was thought that well-designed software could create learning experiences for children that would foster high-level thinking skills. Children, computers, cognitive scientists, and instructional designers are present in this literature; teachers are absent.”
What does this say about our views on teachers and technology? It seems as if there was this perception that the technology was going to replace the teacher in the classroom. I remember, early in my job as a technology specialist, there were teachers that had this fear, which normally led to a bad attitude about technology.
Another interesting observation is this: we were asking the wrong research questions. Because we had the belief that the technology was somehow now the ‘teacher,’ we focused our research questions on the technology itself, leaving the teacher out of the picture. What we have since discovered is that teachers will always play a pivotal role in the classroom because technology is best used in conjunction with good pedagogy, not in isolation as some of the earlier visions for technology espoused.
“Technology without reform is likely to have little value; widespread reform without technology is probably impossible.”
Because it is not about the technology, we must focus on the pedagogical and instructional problems in classrooms, investigating the ways that technology can reform those practices. If we focus strictly on the reform efforts, ignoring technology, we will fail there because reform requires authenticity, and technology is a part of our reality in the 21st century.
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