How can we use this amazing technology to support student learning if there is little consistency? How will this all work out? I can't wait to hear your thoughts.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Consistent Technology
I have been looking at the levels of consistency in the ability to connect to the net across all of my life. Last week i was on a trip when I had to go searching for a wireless connection. This last week I have connected from my house with a satellite uplink which is pretty slow (we don't have cable or DSL), from a shop where I can use DSL which is also not all that fast if more than one computer is using the system, and from the university where we have a HUGE amount of bandwidth connection but I can't always connect to the new system due to the new operating system in our new building. Wouldn't it be interesting if electricity was that inconsistent. My point is that we are in very interesting times - connections aren't consistent, systems aren't consistent, for that matter, people aren't consistent.
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Your lack of consistency problem reminds me of times when things went wrong in various class throughout my life. Every time something wouldn't work out right (i.e. a chemistry experiment flopped, or math equation turned out to be unsolvable, or that day's lecture had to be winged because the projector wouldn't work with a certain laptop, or the prof's laptop couldn't connect and was thus an expensive paper weight, etc)it was framed as a lesson we could learn from (at least by good educators, some just don't react well when best laid plans fall apart, which is an interesting aspect to ponder further). In life, things don't always work as they should and anyone using technology in the class had better have a solid "plan B" prepared.
ReplyDeleteMy point is we must prepare students to expect and prepare for things to go terribly wrong, and at the worst possible time {oh no! my HDD just died and it had the only copy of my just finished dissertation, lecture, or photo album. If only I had followed advice and backed up my data on an external drive or on the "Cloud"} Murphy's law and it's corollaries must be worked into any curriculum integrating technology. My visionary mission of educators is accomplish what most librarians keep as their credo "if I don't know the answer, I know how to find it, by any means", which hearkens back to our discussion of what it means to earn a PhD and be a leader.
Too many classroom teachers feel they must know all the answers and deliver them to their students without uncertainty. The exact opposite of what it takes to develop students for the future. Jerome Bruner commenting on Karplus said (approximately) "He knew that not knowing was the chronic condition not only of a student, but of a real scientist". I feel this message must be internalized by everyone, if our goal, as educators, as a nation, or as a species is to help people become life long learners.