Socratic Monologue
I listened earlier (and am now re-listening) to Bud Hunt’s podcast “Why Technology?” as a response to Ben Grey’s article “Why Technology?” at Tech and Learning. Bud makes a really good point about a tendency in some various educators – educational technologists, teachers and administrators – to get caught up in something I’ve referred to previously as Bright Shiny Object Syndrome.
The reasons why you pick a blog as a tool have to do with what it is you’re trying to do with the writing … the writing should be the really important thing in a blog, not the fact that you used a blog. I think with technology we allow ourselves to get excited that we’ve used a new tool even though maybe we didn’t actually do anything with it, we just sort of picked it up and waved it around.
I am in complete agreement with Bud. It’s not about the technology. But I think there are some good reasons we end up talking about what we’re doing in terms of the technology, not in terms of the learning outcomes. In my experience as my school’s resident ed-tech, I often talk with them in terms of a technology (and by that I’m usually referring to the technology that is attached to the internet). If they are wondering about having some students doing some reflective writing, I’ll suggest that the students could use a blog, or I just verb-ize the thing into the activity of blogging. It’s a result of living in different mental environments, I suppose. I have a mental conceptualization of a blog as a web page (or set of web pages) often written by a single author with the writings (posts) presented in a reverse chronological order. I could phrase it as an online journal or give a more complete explanation, but I use the term blog.
On the other side of the conversation, the teacher has heard the term blog and is excited (hopefully) about trying out this blog thing that everyone is so keen about these days. (Actually, these days it would be probably be Twitter, not blogs). Or they know what it is they want to do with their class – some reflective writing – and they have a solution in mind like having the students keep a written journal in their notebooks which are occasionally. This is a solution that has worked for them in the past so they don’t see a need to discuss this particular goal and project with the resident edtech.
So we end up in a bit of an ironic situation. They know what they want their students to do, but not the tools. I know about the tools, but I don’t always know what they want their students to do. Sometimes they might have heard about something and want to use it without really having a specific learning outcome in mind. Consequently, our conversations tend to focus on the tools, not the outcomes. I’m not sure how to redirect that conversation back to the learning instead of the technology, but thoughtful podcasts like Bud’s remind me to keep trying.
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I’ve had this post on my iphone for a month now and I’m finally reading and reflecting on it.
More than once in the last while I’ve ranted that ‘it’s not about the technology, it’s about the learning.’ Yet I totally get that we need to talk about the tools too!
I’m formulating ideas around tool use being like language immersion learning: people need to play with the tools, mess up the order of things, (syntax), and generally ‘play’ before using the tools effectively. You don’t correct every error someone new to a language makes when speaking and writing… How much guidance & ‘correction’ should we provide to those new to ed tech when they are still so new to the tools?
I do think teachers and districts, especially, get caught up in the Bright Shiny Object Syndrome… I do catch it myself occasionally–thinking about how “cool” it would be to have a particular tool for the classroom, but then I do sit and play and figure out how it can be integrated seamlessly into the learning/teaching. That is where I think we need to focus: how can we 1) get the tools in our classrooms, 2) find the time to play with them 3) have professional development to support the learning~all the while facilitating the learning with all the other tools we have on hand. I am doing a focus on notebook software for my newish Smartboard~got the software loaded in Feb., but have not had time to play and create lessons until now… I suppose that is what summer is for! Our BSOS is the whiteboard–used as a screen until more recently in most classrooms. I am waiting on the class but I’ll get myself going first.
Here is my typical Bright Shiny Object Disorder day:
(wife) “Don’t forget to call Grampa today” (me) “Ok” (Now the B.S.O.D. kicks in) 1. Get up to go to the phone 2. Oh look, the coffee pot light is on 3. Pour cup of coffee, turn to get sugar, BUT 4. The cat is at your feet telling you he needs fresh water 5. Set coffee cup down and fill cat water dish 6. Notice that kitchen floor is dirty 7. Go to get swiffer mop. 8. On the way, notice that the bathroom light was left on 9. Go into bathroom to turn light off but, wait, the toothpaste cap is off the tube. 10. Reach for tube and phone rings. 11. Leave bathoom (with light on and cap off of toothpaste tube) to answer phone. 12. Answer phone to be asked by wife if you have called Grampa yet. 13. Hang up phone and start to dial Grampa’s number only to see that the dog needs to go potty. 14. Hang up phone to let dog outside. 15. Notice that the bird feeder is empty. 16. Go to wood shop to get bird feed using an old coffee can. Fill feeder, return to wood shop to return empty coffee can only to notice that last week you left the roofing hammer in the wood shop. 17. Hammer in hand, go to main shop to return hammer to correct place. On your way, you hear the phone ring in the house. 18. Run to get phone, but miss it by one ring. Oh look, the bathroom light was left on. 19. Start to turn light off only to see that someone left the cap off of the toothpaste tube. Start to put cap back on, only to see your perscription meds on the sink that you forgot to take. 20. Take meds to kitchen to get water to take them with. Oh look, theres your coffee on the counter! Did you put sugar it in? Don’t remember, so pour coffee in sink only to hear dog scratching at the door to come back inside. 21. Go to door to let dog in, but can’t open the door because you have a hammer, a coffee cup, a bottle of meds and a tube of toothpaste in your hands.