Are computers really necessary?

When 'old-timers' - that is, people of my age -  say "we didn’t have computers when I was in school, and I turned out fine", they have a point.  That’s why it’s necessary for educators to explain why the education we remember is not adequate for today’s students.

It is also important to understand that a "21st-century" education is not really about technology. Technology is only a tool; a means to an end. More than one school district has spent a fair sum buying new computers, only to have them sit in classrooms, collecting dust.  If access to new technologies doesn’t provoke us to fundamentally re-think the teaching and learning experience, they’re not worth the investment.

So it is important to understand how technology allows us to do things in the classroom that we couldn’t do before - and why that matters. That was the opportunity that several members of the school board had on a recent visit to State High.

For members of the public who have not stepped inside a classroom in decades, this would be enlightening, and would hopefully jump-start a community-wide conversation concerning the direction of public education.

Perhaps the most significant way that education has changed (or rather, needs to change) is that it has become less about the consumption of information - which, in the information age, is not nearly as important as it once was - and more about what you can do with that information. As one teacher put it, we’re seeing s shift from "content" to "analysis."

Educators and employers have identified a set of "21st-century skills" that today’s students will need in order to be successful. The list includes critical-thinking, collaboration, broad communication skills, civics and creativity. What technology does is make it possible, or at least considerably easier, to incorporate that set of skills into the student learning experience.

As one teacher described it: we need to see computers not as "consumption" machines, but as “creation” machines.

A high school English teacher decided it was important to expand the concept of what it means to be an effective communicator beyond the "5-paragraph essay" - which is all that many high school students learn to do. So she incorporated live performance and the creation of 30-second Public Service Announcements into her college writing course.

Consider the higher-order communication skills that a performer must have in order to connect with an audience on both an emotional and intellectual level. (For me, it also validated the idea that the arts can be infused throughout the curriculum, not just as stand-alone courses.)

And consider the skills one has to learn in order to produce an effective PSA. Of course, technical editing skills are useful, but more importantly, this project requires that you grab someone's attention and make your point in 15-30 seconds. (As Mark Twain  said, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.")  A record of these kinds of experiences, in a digital portfolio, provide a much fuller picture of student achievement than the results of standardized testing.

Another teacher took advantage of on-line resources to stimulate classroom  deliberations on current events.

Several classes demonstrated how technology has made it easier to work on group projects, and how those projects were of higher quality, and more in depth as a result – and required collaborative skills the students will surely need in college and the workplace.  It is also far easier for students to comment on and critique each other's work, which 1) makes the writing more authentic, because the teacher is not the only one who will read it, and 2) with the students acting as "teachers" their learning becomes more ingrained.

But the value of the teacher’s input is also increased. Use of the Googledocs technology allows for more frequent and timely teacher input: revisions and feedback that used to take a week or more can now happen prior to the next day’s class.

Clearly, this requires that teachers adjust from their traditional role to one of "co-collaborators".  That’s not easy to do, so one theme we heard repeatedly was the necessity of quality professional development. You have to provide sufficient support and time for teachers to become comfortable with doing things differently, but the investment is both necessary and worthwhile.

Then there are the side benefits. First, a student perspective I would not have considered: "spellcheck" actually enhances good spelling, because it provides immediate feedback. And as the students told us, experiencing a subject via a virtual tour has far more impact than reading about it in a textbook.  Several students commented that it is easier to organize and edit class notes.

In my mind, it's no longer a question of whether technology should be incorporated into the classroom, but what’s the most effective and efficient way to do it.