Abstract
Today many students and teachers are dreading going to school. Standards and high-stake testing are making it difficult to think individually and be creative. There is a solution to help everyone out – welcome integration of technology. Technology, in particular computers, has been part of the school system since the 1980’s but now many people are pushing that technology must be taught. This content area is still relatively new and causing fear for educators, who for some are not that savvy in the subject. The purpose of technology can help students with their social foundation and understanding of complex concepts. Technology can help students through interaction and participation which many students will gladly do their work. Another add-on to this subject is video gaming and how it can help students with their learning. Teachers need an extra hand and technology is here to assist.
Introducing The Next Challenger – Technology!
Andy Roddick, an experienced well-known professional tennis player has competed against other well-known tennis players. He steps out onto the tennis court. The crowd cheers and looks forward toward his new opponent, Pong. Pong is an electronic computerized style of table tennis, a sport very similar to tennis. The match begins and Roddick is losing, the Pong paddle seems to always be a step ahead. Andy Roddick is frustrated, he feels like all is lost unless through some miracle he can find a way to pull through and win. He tries different strategies to bet this rectangular paddle and finally he finds a way and wins – Pong is defeated. Roddick’s comment, “life is about taking challenges.” Even though this is a commercial promoting the American Express Credit Card, an educator can view this as how they feel dealing with technology in the classroom. Education is becoming more and more detailed about student success. With this urge by the federal government on the need of improving education, technology has been involved in giving multiple ways to lend a helping hand. But like Pong, technology is so vast that it can be overwhelming. Technology can be used to interpret data from various high-stake testing. It can also bring in many incentive ways to get students engaged and comprehend the posted objectives. Finally, technology can be utilized effectively and efficiently, as long as the educator is comfortable allowing this style to enter their domain. Technology is like the paddle, educators need to find a way to take control and use it to help improve the learning of today’s youth. Love, set, match.
The History of Technology in Schools
Education has never really changed. The strategies on how to teach students have shifted because more is being asked for the learners to know. “Since the colonial era, Western institutionalized education increasingly has been put into the service of civilization-building by seeking to advance practical industrial needs (Chafy pg 1).” Technology is driving force that allows for new innovations to be created and explored, very similar to education. During the 1980’s the government reported on how poorly public education was in America. The government report,
“‘A Nation at Risk,’ addressed four issues in the American school
system. They were poor structure on the curriculum and content
areas, low expectations on student outcomes with low requirements
for acceptance to higher learning facilities, students were not in school
as long as students from other parts of the world, and finally, teacher
preparation programs were not producing able minded educators
(Fletcher pg 2).”
Technology during the 1980’s was not really being utilized in the classroom effectively. It was used mainly as an organizer for student information at the human resource department at school districts. Databases were created to store personal information and student absences (Fletcher pgs 2-3). The use of computers at this time was not beneficial for student academic progress. Also there were hardly any workshops to help train educators on using computers in the classroom.
Soon more computers were being delivered to the school because the government felt technology could help improve high-stake testing scores. With the increase of computers, more of them were being placed in school. The computers were either setup in one big room or few rooms and were called computer labs. “The instruction and assessment –student and teacher – side of the district was even more disconnected…it measured minimum skills and there were no ‘stakes’ to it…there was no attempt to link what happened in the computer lab with what happened in the real classroom (Fletcher pgs 2-3).” Teachers and students were not engaged during this time, since for the assessment tool with technology was hardly viewed or interpret. Also for students, this was a break away from their regular class work (Fletcher pg 3). This was the typical view on the use of technology at many schools nationwide but then a change occurred. A new outlook on viewing education and learning, standards, assessments and accountability on students took front stage. “In reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind Act), the federal government has required all states to establish accountability systems with high-stakes testing (Fletcher pg 3).” With this act, the teacher had to teach the students what was based on the standards, which were set up by their district, state and or nation. Now with the strain from No Child Left Behind, teachers are asked to find necessary practices using technology to help improve their teaching to raise students’ performances on high-stake testing. Integrating technology in the classroom and utilizing the use of the computer lab was a new strategy for teachers to use in order to help improve students academically. Educating teachers on using them was a strategy did not used, so teachers were faced with using something that was new for them. Teachers may have become afraid on trying a new tool that they did not master. Worse yet many students were more knowledgeable than their instructors.
Socially Adaptable
In regards to technology and how educators can utilize its potential to strengthen students understanding, social standards need to be looked as guides and helpers for teachers. There are many views on how the use of technology can relate with learners’ social foundation. One view is simplicity with technology. Liz Marr reviewed the book The Social Shaping of Technology and states, “rapid developments in technology especially in the field of information and communications technology, appear to raise new issues which demand we go further than ‘these social condition brought us these new technologies’…wider social relations of class, gender or ethnicity often distracted attention from the technology itself (Marr pgs 1-2).” Technology is growing and because of this growth the need to teach social skills and awareness is a critical issue. Through another source technology is viewed as an aide with social development. “The computer is likely responsible for the single largest developmental shift across many areas of learning and performance; this is especially true of not only what conceptualize problem solving and the degree to which abstract reasoning is important in concept formation (Flye, Gibson, Seemann, Wilkinson 2511).”
Where Learning Evolves
Children go to school to learn foundations and from there be able to build upon them later on in their years of schooling. Technology can help foster and improve the understanding by creating more concrete ideas. With the No Child Left Behind Act on its way of making the attempt to have students succeed that is based on high-stake testing, technological companies are making an effort to help schools nationwide. No Child Left Behind is trying to make use of technology work with student achievement. Having companies work in collaboration with districts is allowing technology be a universal tool for learning. Yanlu Xu reviews on a theory, “attempt to conceptualize curriculum delivery within the framework of new technology. When we analyze the differences of curriculum delivery…we see there are three main parameters that strongly influence the curriculum delivery…three parameters are knowledge, pedagogy and technology (Xu pg 1231).” Looking at that teachers and administrators can see the connections between learning and using technology together. There are many debates on how technology should be used in education in relation to student achievement. An issue that has been stated is that some students do not know how to use technology. One person that can explain this is, Dr. Caroline Crawford, who in a podcast said that students are unaware on how to use computers because computer literacy is a test not given to show accountability measures from the act. She tries to give a solution stating that technology could be used to support the standards that are tested such as science, math and language arts (Instructional Technology Podcasts 4/13/2006).
Where Did This Come From?
In short, technology seems like it is a brand new subject. However, it has been around and used to assist teachers in education. The difficult part now is showing how useful technology is by itself. It is a very powerful tool and that is the bottom line. Trying to find teachers to integrate technology can be a challenge. Administration has no problem, but teachers are shown to be more resistance. Reason is according to
fear and time efficiency. Change is difficult for the classroom teacher. Kari Rhame, Chief Technology Officer of the Deer Park Independent School District in Deer Park Texas, states that giving ideas to teachers during staff development to help them see and start from there. “Building a relationship with teachers…and getting them to see a project they can do…let us show how technology can have a role (Instructional Technology Podcasts 1/27/2006).” This is not a problem that will be solved in one meeting, it is gradual and needs to have recurring collaborative meetings. Another difficult part with trying to help teachers use technology within their subjects is time. Teachers feel that learning a new tool will take away time from the students. Another problem that Rhame talks about is the difficulty attempting to integrate technology through the elementary level because of the high cost (Instructional Technology Podcasts 1/27/2006). It is difficult for elementary schools to have a school wide technology program because every child in their respected grade level should have the same mode and tool for instruction. Technology cost money and many companies are looking at investing their product in the hands of older students because they are the ones that will need to find employment and have a large gap in learning. The government tries and assists middle schools to high schools because of testing and better outcome to show results.
Another problem with technology is competition of technology. When a consumer purchases a new computer with state of the art components, a better model is just getting ready to be launched. Along with competition in technology there also comes the use of educational professional development. Some experienced teachers dread going to professional development in regards to innovative ways on using technology in the classroom. They are taught how to use it and how it will improve test scores. Educators are shown graphs of students excelling after using certain technological programs in their core curriculum and then the meeting is over; the teacher is standing there alone. Fear is a key issue here, an educator is afraid of the unknown because they do not know what will happen in the classroom if using the technology fails. Also the new teacher is given many wonderful ways of instruction during their training and student teaching but again they are overwhelmed with following the school’s guidelines, managing their class and teaching to the standards. Mentorship is a solution that can assist and help develop a team that can work together on finding ways to integrate technology in their class. Having someone as a support system is always beneficial.
Gaming – Friend or Foe?
Listening to some podcast in handling games in the classroom, Brian Russell of Audio Activism discusses about the Mobile Media Conference. During an interview with one of the attendants, Dan Smith, the two talked about how interesting it was of the use of a video game, it typically was used for entertainment value and now can be something to use as a learning experience. Things discussed were impact on learning, social interaction, exploration and engagement. (podcast Audio Activism 05/06/2005).
In a webcast presentation entitled Technology in Education Games from Orange County School District, Michael Guerena and Mark Wagner discuss the positive side toward gaming in education. One point that they bring out is the purpose of using games in schools. Gaming is helping students with skills and is creating more authentic exploration. Dr. James Gee from University of Wisconsin states that students find a connection with language, action and talk. Students are able to get dialogue and find out how to use certain vocabulary words correctly. Having games in the classroom, students are more engage and interact (Games in Education 07/09/2006). Something also described in the webcast was the notion that games is not replacing the teaching but enhancing it. It is assisting the teacher to help build that foundation and make sure the students understand it through their own terms. The role of the game is as stated my Dr. Gee, “complex systems is any time you play a game it’s a role system you have to discover what that role system is and how to leverage it to your own purposes and how to even find emergent propertities to flow through it…because everything in life is a complex system (Games in Education 07/09/2006).” The ability for students to venture outside of the classroom is unlimited, anytime no matter what. Students have the ability to interact, take risks, be motivated and involved. In the webcast, the teacher mentioned that the effectiveness of using games was that it fulfilled meeting the state standards (Games in Education 07/09/2006). Teachers might be more accepting with using technology in the classroom if technology will help fulfill state requirements and standards.
A negative side that Dr. Gee mentions is limitations. He brings up a game known as S.W.A.T.4 and states that students cannot kill to kill but must follow directions that S.W.A.T. team members must go through, students understand the language from the dialogue and experience at hand decision making and social interaction. Unfortunately there are not simulations dealing with scientist or other occupations because it is not that popular and people will not invent that (Games in Education 07/09/2006). The bottom line is how to create that one game that will want to make kids yearn to learn. Problem with gaming is with teachers’ ideas of what games are – fun. The webcast says not to call it fun but engaging (Games in Education 07/09/2006). Challenges with games are students have no desire to participate. Another challenge was student’s ability to be a ‘gamer’ if they do not like it then they will try and avoid participating at all cost (Games in Education 07/09/2006). These are in parallel with using a textbook in regards to the themes of motivation to participate; if student is not motivated will they complete their assignment to the best of their ability? Most likely no because they have limited or zero engagement. Another issue brought up with using technology in a history class was dealing with a war simulation and the player can actually change history. Finally, a problem also is unaware. When mentioning gaming, people might visualize simple arcade games or violent, senseless killing and pure fantasy, it’s not learning, it’s fun time (Games in Education 07/09/2006). Learning can be fun too and worthwhile.
Where To Go From Here?
Educators have a lot on their plate and the government is asking a lot from them to improve the students’ results from high-stake testing. Instead of reinventing the wheel, educators should use something to help strengthen the students’ understanding of the curriculum and objectives. The solution is technology, instead of using technology as its own content area, educators should use it as a tool to make more connections for the students. Teachers need to be trained in programs to help them become more familiar with the it so that they can be knowledgeable and model for the students. Instead of creating isolation, where the teacher feels alone and overwhelmed, have collaboration and more practice during professional development. When the teacher becomes better at it they will find more ways that they can use technology to help with student progress. Not only that but students will be more engaged and have that desire to learn more because technology is helping them with interactions, building social skills and improving their logic just to name a few.
References
Chafy, R. (1997). Exploring the Intellectual Foundation [review from Journal of Technology Education]. Journal of Technology Education Vol. 9, Number 1, 1997.
Fay, R. & Wagner, M. (2006). Games in Education [webcast from EdTechLife] http://robfay.com/2006/07/09/games-in-education, 07/09/2006.
Fletcher, G.H. (2002). Igniting the Internet Revolution: A New Category for Education Technology [Review of the program Concert from Pearson Education Technologies]. T.H.E. Journal (http://thejournal.com/articles/16752), 1-8.
Flye, A., & Gibson, G., & Seemann, E. & Wilkinson, L. (2002). Technology as a Developmental Influence [Review of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference]. Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2002, 2511-2512.
Marr, L. (1999). Sociological Research Online [Review of the book The Social Shaping of Technology: Second Edition]. Sociological Research Online, 1-2.
Russell, B. (2005). Interview with Dan Smith About Serious Games [podcast Audio Activism] http://www.audioactivism.org/audio/AA_MMCon_Smith_GamingEDU.mp3, 05/06/2005.
Smith, R. & Crawford, C. (2006). Computer Literacy and NCLB [podcast Instructional Technology Podcasts] http://inst.cl.uh.edu/podcasts/Comp%20Lit%20and%20NCLB.mp3, 04/13/2006 04:43 AM.
___________. (2006). Implementing Computers in Schools [podcast Instructional Technology Podcasts] http://inst.cl.uh.edu/podcasts/Kari_Rhame.mp3, 01/27/2006.
Xu, Yanlu. (1999). Exploring Curriculum Delivery [review of the World Conference on Educational Mutimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 1999] Proceedings of World Conference on Education Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 1999, 1231-1232.
