EDU 6433 #ya #technolugy

#ya #technolugy

Cool! A hashtag, bro! … Here's one, bro: #Spellcheck. Alas, I SO judge thee...and you, dear reader, judge thee (and so would Shakespeare)… 

It’s wonderful to begin to incorporate the new digital age technology around us into education, such as blogging, tweeting, and a cornucopia of other shiny apps, downloads, and magical web-unicorn glitter poop, but the bottom line remains - as discussed in the second blog post – that “old literacy” should never be simply replaced by “new literacy” with technological [doodad] emphasis, even as has been alluded, as in Richtel’s “Blogs vs. Term Papers” (2012). Foundational, so-called “old literacy” is necessary. Without it, even with the best technological advances, students will not be able to put these to good use with technology throughout their educational career, and later in life as productive citizens. Everybody laughs, for instance, when the President of the United States has to retweet because of glaring typos.

Such critical analysis is necessary when learning of the bountiful new technologies before us. Are they simply just dazzling doodads, meant to entertain and maybe learn from, as discussed by Su and Rodriguez (n.d.) regarding educational games, or are they actually promoting higher-level thinking and cognitive development? Are these new technology bandwagons actually promoting the deepest of the SAMR model levels? Are they incorporating various combinations of all three important ideas of the TPACK framework? Or are they just bright, fancy entertainment (engaging nonetheless), but lacking actual educational purpose? There is certainly no need for such technologically advanced beings such as humankind to go acting like lowly Procyon lotor now is there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkTzDh8IKNU )? And in all of this fancy new technological innovation, where is the direct instruction? Some of these examples seem to simply provide activities to do, and doing is good, but teaching kids good is good to do too. With technological integration obviously, but the mash-up is key. Finally, as brought up in class discussion before, there is always the important issue of access. Without 100% student access to technology in school and at home, as many examples for engaging school technology activities (Jackson, 2013) or communication devices (Knutson, 2016) promote, there will still be major flaws to simply embracing new technology in education.

This is all important to consider, such critical analysis and questioning, when dissecting standard three, modeling digital age work and learning, which contains four key ideas summarized below:

1.       Demonstration of fluency in incorporation and transfer of new digital technologies.

2.       Collaborate with school community using digital tools to promote student success.

3.       Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to school community using various technologies.

4.       Model effective use of technology to aid in student research and learning.

Regarding the second idea, it should be addressed first and foremost that it would be foolish to assume 100% student and overall school community (the collective students, teachers, administration, support staff, parents/guardians, and various levels expanding from local community) access to any digital tools in question. Collaboration and communication with technology cannot happen without access to technology. Regarding the fourth idea, now here lies a tie to direct instruction, as well as an opportunity for growth in incorporating technological innovation in education. Are there technology standards that are employed to provide a scaffolded incorporation of technological skills and research strategies for students to practice at each grade level for what is necessary of them in the real world, evolving as fast as current technologies?

In researching the trigger question pertaining to ways for using technology with collaboration of the school community to increase student success it became clear that many suggestions simply seem to provide razzle-dazzle, dime-a-dozen, downloadable apps and programs for potential communication, but remember, however decent: 100% access! Then, even if access weren’t an issue, are the programs educationally stimulating? There is no use in employing a whoop-de-do, new technology if it actually does not engage on a deep, cognitive level – no matter the bells and whistles! And even those games that do promote educational growth rather than simple engagement (Su and Rodriguez, n.d.), do they provide actual direct instruction? Does any game provide direct instruction? It’s not listed as a benefit in the literature review by Su and Rodriguez (n.d.), for example. That’s a major drawback to suggestions such as, “One hot trend is “flipped” classrooms…” (Jackson, 2013). While it may be engaging to watch a video for class, is that really the same as direct, explicit instruction? And what was that about requiring students to pre watch a video or pre reading? Remember access to resources! Not to mention…all students actually reading for homework so that engaging class activity can then be collaborative? How does student collaboration work if half the students didn’t pre read/watch for the collaborative activity prep?

Figure 1: While the "flipped" classroom provides, “time engaged in projects” (Jackson, 2013)...well, that's all there really is. Do all students do pre reading? Do all students have access to the technology base necessary for the video process described here? A resounding NO and NO…Maybe in the school districts where there are E pluribus unum Abies procera, or the elusive Noble Fir laden with guilded bars struck with “E pluribus unum” – context is important. 

Furthermore regarding the trigger question, it must again be noted that the ideas of the “old literacy” (Richtel, 2012) should be emphasized when incorporating technology to promote engaging student activities and school community collaboration and communication alike; it’s great we have twitter, but it’s not great to not teach children proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence fluency, writing structure, and countless other foundational skills needed to not tweet like a tw…POTUS… Here is exactly where there must be direct instruction, where simply relying upon new technologies and/or games to “teach”, communicate, and collaborate with students and communities will fall far short. Instead of having students simply whip out cell phones (remember: access, and actual educational utility) and tweet discussion about the latest 7^th grade literature reading (context), perhaps a simulation of tweeting with white boards and dry erase, as described by Marcinek (2013) as the fun and engaging “Post on my Wall” activity, could be a foundational strategy leading up to actual technological use and application. With this hands on activity, students emulate the sparkly technology (that they already may know how to use or not even have), but gain the benefit of direct instruction, practice both written and vocally as they may engage in discussion, and editing/revision practice. Alas, those are but simple “old literacy”. Bottom line is, we need that foundation, old or not, to make generations of literate students to inevitably gather up a crumbling civilization.

#FoundationFirst #IntelligibleEvidenceBasedTweetingSecond

 Reference List:

Jackson, Sarah (2013). How Technology Can Encourage Student Collaboration. Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/how-technology-can-encourage-student-collaboration.

Knutson, Jeff (2016). 6 Tech Tools That Boost Teacher-Parent Communication. Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/6-tech-tools-that-boost-teacher-parent-communication.

Marcinek, Andrew (2013). Building Classroom Community Amongst the Machines. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/building-classroom-community-amongst-machines-andrew-marcinek.

Richtel, Matt (2012). Blogs vs. Term Papers. The New York Times.

Su, Bude and Rodriguez Cathi (n.d.). Effective Features in Computer Learning Games. California State University Monterey Bay.