For too long educational technology has failed to live up to its potential in classrooms. Throwing technology at our educational problems, unfortunately, will never transform learning. By this time, we’ve proven it. It didn’t work with the Apple I and Oregon Trail and it still isn’t working with iPads and smartphones. However, all is not lost. Technology is vitally important but it is insufficient on its own. It has to be paired with the wise hand of a skillful teacher. Strong instruction, with technology applied wisely, can and will improve classrooms and support students. I argue that the education profession has to stop focusing on the latest and greatest app…or technology…or trend and, instead, focus on using technology wisely to support learning.
The mission and vision below were originally developed for a graduate course but, as I wrote them, I realized that they are more than an assignment. This vision encompasses the guiding principles that I have long incorporated into my practices as an educator and the way that I lead in schools. It’s time to start making wise choices when it comes to technology integration.
Overriding Goal of Technology in Education
Technology in a classroom, at its best, should always be about students meeting learning goals. The technology that we use should make that learning more efficient, more engaging, or more effective than it would be with traditional methods (Edutopia, 2012). One of the persistent problems in educational technology integration is that technology has been used more as entertainment than to meet learning goals. In this way, technology becomes merely a toy rather than a powerful tool (Robyler & Hughes, 2019). To use technology as a toy or a babysitter is to miss out on all that technology can offer. The myth is that if we use enough apps with students or find the most entertaining apps, learning will result. That myth is illustrated in the image below.
Instead of starting with an app or a particular technology tool, our use of technology must start with establishing our learning goals. Once we fully grasp what students should know and be able to do, then we can decide what technology tools will assist in meeting that learning target. Here’s a hint: It may not always be the newest, fanciest, or most complicated tool that best gets the job done. This goal for educational technology is illustrated in the image below.
We can consider how a particular technology will make learning more efficient, more engaging, or more effective.
- Learning Efficiency: If technology makes the learning more efficient, it means that it speeds up a student’s learning process. For instance, a student may be able to grasp a concept much more quickly through an online simulation than through conducting a lab in class.
- Learning Engagement: If technology makes the learning more engaging, then it increases student interest in a task, either through the technology itself or through the engagement with a real-world audience that the technology allows. Students who are creating a website about a topic will be far more engaged in the process than if they were simply writing an essay for a teacher.
- Learning Effectiveness: If technology makes the learning more effective, then the technology is allowing a student to learn content in a deeper way than what might be possible through traditional methods. An example of this might be a personalized learning tool that allows for enrichment and remediation based on student responses. That level of personalization is difficult in a traditional classroom but possible through technology.
Educators should evaluate their technology use for each situation based on the established learning goals. In most cases, technology will improve the learning efficiency, engagement, or effectiveness but, we must be thoughtful about its use in each learning situation and keep in mind the key purposes for technology use, outlined in the next section.
Purpose for Using Educational Technology
Once we decide that a particular learning goal would be more efficient, more engaging, or more effective using a technology tool, we have to decide what technology tools we might apply and how they will connect to the bigger learning goals. There are three main purposes that technology can serve in our learning, as seen in this image and explained below:
- Content Presentation. Sometimes, it truly is more efficient to have students view a video, read an article, interact with a presentation, or explore a website in order to understand a concept. Through YouTube, we have access to some of the best educators in the business. They may be far more effective at explaining a concept than the regular classroom teacher ever could be. Through Khan Academy or PhEt simulations, we have access to strong, interactive, and free content that will deepen student understanding of concepts. In many cases, it makes sense to bring those resources into the learning process to teach the content in a more effective way.
- Content Creation. Through web 2.0 applications, students have access to an amazing array of tools that can create products far more detailed and professional than what we might create with traditional methods. These tools move our use of technology into deeper levels of the SAMR model, from mere substitution or augmentation of learning to true redefinition (Romrell, Kidder, & Wood, 2014). For instance, instead of a persuasive essay, which could be created with a pen and paper, a student could create a persuasive website and a social media campaign on a topic. They would gain a much richer understanding of what it takes to persuade a real audience. Their task is fundamentally transformed from an academic exercise to a real-world task.
- Collaboration. The final purpose for technology implementation can be to facilitate students working together. In today’s world, it is common for teams to work at a distance through technological tools. Students can have the same experience in a classroom by using collaboration features within their everyday work. Students can comment on a text together using Google Docs or co-create a mindmap in Bubl.us. To go even further, students can collaborate with real-world experts who can provide feedback on their ideas through a Google Hangout session or in comments on a student blog. One of technology’s most powerful purposes is to bring students a real-world, immediate audience and the ability to collaborate on content.
Keep in mind that for a given lesson or unit, a teacher may use all three purposes for technology use. Each can strengthen and deepen the other within an overall plan of instruction.
Learning Theories that Drive Educational Technology Use
This vision of technology use relies heavily on students as active learners, a primary tenet of contructivism. Though students may learn initial content through direct instruction, they should quickly move into a deeper understanding of that content through content creation and collaboration. It is only through making something out of their learning that they can incorporate that learning into long-term memory, as explained in information processing theories of learning (Robyler & Hughes, 2019). Technology is a powerful tool in empowering students to take that next step from being exposed to content to creating something from that content. Through this process of active construction of learning, students can not only retain information but they will also be more engaged and motivated for the long-term.
This vision may, at first glance, seem like common sense. However, too often educational technology has been used without a clear vision. We have to get serious about using technology wisely and truly impacting student learning. Our constant distraction and chasing of the latest and greatest has not served our students. It’s time to move beyond basic technology use and into wisdom in the way we use technology daily.
References
[Edutopia]. (2012, December 12). An introduction to technology integration [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=288&v=d59eG1_Tt-Q
Roblyer, M. D. and Hughes, J.E. (2019). Integrating educational technology into teaching. New York, NY: Pearson.
Romrell, D., Kidder, L., & Wood, E. (2014). The SAMR model as a framework for evaluating mLearning. Online Learning Journal, 18(2).
