Welcome!

Welcome!

This blog will investigate issues pertaining to the use of technology in the classroom setting. The following questions will be addressed:

1. How is technology being effectively used to build digital literacy skills?

2. What are the possible drawbacks to incorporating technology into the curriculum?

3. How does the issue of access to technology affect students’ development and academic progress?

Both the pros and cons of increased use of technology in the classroom will be explored. To start the conversation, where do YOU currently stand on this issue?

Framing the Issue: Historical Perspective

The Industrial Revolution of the 19^th century brought with it big changes in the American education system. Public schools were designed to offer a standard education to the masses of people headed toward factory work. Previously, individuals learned their craft as apprentices in on-the-job training from an early age. The Industrial Revolution changed the apprenticeship model for education into a mass-schooling model. The classroom teacher became the vehicle of knowledge for large groups of students. The scope and sequence of the textbook dictated that which students should learn. Blackboards, paper and pencil, and, later, overhead projectors and copy machines were (and still are) the technologies supporting this system.

In Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution of Schooling in America, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson describe a new revolution, called the Information Revolution or the Knowledge Revolution (Collins & Halverson, 2009). This new revolution is changing the way we produce, consume, communicate, and think. “While the imperatives of the industrial-age learning can be thought of as uniformity, didacticism, and teacher control, the knowledge learning technologies have their own imperatives of customization, interaction, and user control” (Collins & Halverson, 2009, p. 4).

The work we do has changed in profound ways. Instead of manual labor, human beings are engaged in operating and interpreting computer equipment. “The computerization of work puts a premium on skills of accessing, evaluating, and synthesizing information” (Collins & Halverson, 2009, p. 5). Although technology is expanding all around us, the school system has remained largely the same as when the mass-schooling model was stabilized in the 19^th century. Although our schools are making efforts to incorporate technology, there are incompatibilities between the demands of the knowledge revolution and the traditional school.

Collins, A. & Halverson, R. (2009). Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America. New York: Teachers College Press.

The iGeneration

iPod.

iPhone.

iPad.

iTouch.

Dr. Larry D. Rosen has coined a new term for the upcoming generation immersed in technology: the iGeneration. The following characteristics describe this generation, which refers to today’s elementary, middle, and high schoolers (born in the 1990s and beyond):

-Technology is all around them, much of it invisible.

-They have grown up with the internet.

-They consume massive quantities of media.

-They utilize a variety of communication technologies.

-They are adept at multitasking.

-They have a unique learning style, a need for constant motivation and collective reflection, and a desire for immediacy.

The following table shows the time (hours:minutes) children and teens spend using technology and media each day:

Rosen, L.D. (2009). Technology and media use by children and teens. [online image] Retrieved 4/28/11 from http://drlarryrosenmemyspaceandiblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-to-igeneration.html

Clearly these new technologies have redefined communication, thinking, and interaction. Children who are immersed in such technology have difficulty focusing on traditional methods of teaching in the classroom, where students listen to the teacher, compose work with paper and pencil, and engage in solitary thinking.

How will education respond?

References:

Rosen, L.D. (2010). Rewired: Understanding the igeneration and how they learn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rosen, L.D. (2009, August 27). Welcome to the igeneration! [Web log comment]. Retrieved from www.drlarryrosenmemyspaceandiblog (2011, April 28).