Funny how one of my favorite bloggers, Joe Bower – For the love of learning, and my Masters forum discussion ended up on the same topic this week. Our class discussion began with a discussion post about the compatibility of Cognitive Tools and Cognitive Flexibility but ended up toward a discussion on using technology to ‘re-imagine learning’. One of the readings this week was an older paper but there were some great ideas. Not new, but lovely to see. The description of learner and computer being “intellectual partners” where each is responsible for what they do best struck a chord in me. The idea of offloading the unproductive memorizing tasks to the computer so that learners can think more productively is very appealing(Jonassen and Reeves p. 697). The article explained that our idea of knowledge needs to change…does memorizing facts make us knowledgeable, or the ability to use these facts?
A TED talk by Richard Calcutta http://www.instructionaldesign.org/index.html made some great points. We have to stop “digitizing” the traditional teaching style. Technology creates creators and this cannot be leveraged using a direct teaching method. We should be using technology to re-imagine learning….YES!
So back to Joe and the post that caught my attention today: Technology is not neutral (http://www.joebower.org/2013/02/technology-is-not-neutral.html) I had no idea what to expect follwing the tweet to his site, but boy was I pleased. This grabbed my attention: ‘We can use classroom computers to benefit the system, the teacher or the student’ – wow, exactly! It continues,
ahhhhhhhh I am so thankful to have the internet and the various bloggers and tweeters I follow because some days…I start to think I must be living in the clouds. Here is my frustration. I applied and received a grant to purchase laptops, chromebooks and iPads for my daughters school (who had one working set for 400 students!) Yay, money, happy times…or so you would think. Next thing I know, the principal doesn’t want tablets (of any brand) and would like to have less personal devices. What does the school want? Sound systems – classroom audio systems AND document cameras ($800 ones….can’t a webcam for $20 do the same job?) Sense my frustration. This is how I now come to understand the title of this blog – ‘Technology is not neutral’. You bet! Audio system and document cameras put technology in the hands of the teacher and further direct instruction teaching methods. Laptops, chromebooks, tablets in the hands of children….the possibilities begin to open up.