A proponent rethinks cell phones in the classroom
A teacher who argued in favor incorporating cell phones into classroom instruction in a 2010 Education Week essay rethinks that position in a new piece.
Writing in Ed Week about his emerging doubts, Kentucky high school teacher Paul Barnwell says, “While summarizing is a real skill, do we really want students to further fragment their thoughts and attention in this age of incessant digital distraction and stimuli with 140-character blurbs? Do we want students to spend even more time in front of a screen, bypassing opportunities to converse and collaborate face-to-face?”
Here is a short excerpt of Barnwell’s essay “Why Twitter and Facebook Are Not Good Instructional Tools.”
A recent report by the Economic & Social Research Council refutes the notion that today’s youth, the “net generation,” is truly tech savvy. After interviewing and collecting data from 2000 first-year college students in Britain, researchers found that only 21.5 percent of students had blogged, and only 12.1 percent of students had used wikis. Too few students are familiar or engaged with these sorts of technologies that are structured to promote academic rigor; instead, they opt to use Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, most often as distractions from their studies rather than learning tools.
I’ve come to agree wholeheartedly with the study’s findings. Do many students you interact with know how to do much more than Tweet, post to Facebook, or browse YouTube? Email is antiquated to students; after all, many kids are so used to fragmenting their thoughts that writing a substantial email is drudgery. Twitter is all the rage for teenagers and is a constant source and depository of mindless banter and instant gratification. Being tech savvy should include the ability to synthesize ideas and media forms, and create something original. So how can we promote more thoughtful use of technology in schools?
Despite my shifting beliefs about the efficacy of certain technologies in the classroom, I am a long way from giving up on technology altogether—indeed, I currently teach a digital media and storytelling course. There is tremendous power and potential in what we can teach students with sound, image, and video-based projects.
If students can’t communicate face-to-face to conduct interviews or set up photo shoots, there is little point in placing a camera in their hands or a laptop at their desk. As educators, we must find a balance between screen time and “face” time.
But until I’m convinced that cell phone and social media applications truly support deep thinking, my students will keep their devices in their pockets and backpacks.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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61 comments Add your comment
William Casey
June 20th, 2012
2:24 pm
Technology certainly has its place in education (my 9:55 post) but it also has it’s pitfalls. I remember when telrvision was touted as an “educational revolution” back in the days of Charles van Doren. The same with VCR’s and their successors. Still later, internet access. Alas, none of these inventions improved learning UNLESS the teachers prepped their students for the experience AND held them directly accountable for the material. Some teachers did; some did not. So it will be with future innovations. Tech is too expensive to introduce, maintain and upgrade without considerable thought being put into its introduction. Doesn’t happen enough in schools.
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redweather
June 20th, 2012
2:44 pm
@ Ariel, you wrote “students are bored in class and we know that old fashioned lecturing does not work any more.”
First, boredom is both a choice and an attitude.
Second, what do you mean when you say “we know that old fashioned lecturing does not work any more.” What do you mean when you claim that it doesn’t work? Do you mean you’re bored during lectures and therefore fail to pay attention to what the teacher is saying and therefore fail to learn anything? If that’s what is happening, then your lack of interest in learning may be the real problem.
And here is something else I, as a teacher, know. Students who don’t want to learn anything won’t learn anything. Happens all the time. But those very same students always blame the teacher, never themselves.
And here is one more thing I, as a teacher, know. Most of my students would bore me to tears, if I allowed myself to become bored. But because I am a teacher, and because I think my students will be better off if they learn something, I simply don’t adopt that attitude.
So the next time you feel bored, remind yourself that you don’t have to be bored if you don’t want to be.
living in an outdated ed system
June 20th, 2012
2:49 pm
William Casey – the problem is that for decades, schools have just been “cramming” technology into schools, without creating content designed for those platforms, nor adequately training teachers to use such technology! The book “Disrupting Class” does a superb job of describing this problem. Why do you think the print industry has largely become irrelevant in the digital age? You can’t slap a newspaper or magazine onto a computer screen and call it your digital strategy! Digital platform are two-way, interactive, “lean forward” mediums, while the analog world was one-way, “lean back” systems. That’s what’s wrong with our current learning environment.
Solutions
June 20th, 2012
3:34 pm
I prefer the schools not become involved in technology, they will just ruin it. For the motivated student, technology is great and independent of the mind dulling public school atmosphere. If you go to the khanacademy dot org, you will find discussions among the motivated students, who are leaping far ahead of their classmates and teachers in mathematics, physics, chemistry and other subjects by completing the modules. The teachers who incorporate the khanacademy into their classes cannot keep up, the students far outpace them, such that they are reduced to saying “I will have to watch the module to answer the question.” Of course Mr Khan recommends the students read the textbook and attend classes (they must in public schools, they are held hostage to the teaching establishment). The internet allows the students who are capable and motivated to go around the dumbed down public school systems. Do not let the teachers capture the internet learning opportunities.
Ole Guy
June 20th, 2012
4:08 pm
A coupla hunert years ago…or so it seems…Sister mary Meanface took this 3rd grader’s toy rubber knife away. A pretty neat thing to little boys who delighted in snails, squigly things, and pet rats more than the stuff at hand, Sister Meanface, in a conference with Mom and Dad, said something about minimizing distractions in the classroom. Of course, I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about; all I knew was…SHE TOOK MY TOY AWAY, so that I, and my classmates, might not become distracted.
If this little story makes any sense at all…great! If not, you’ve got bigger problems.
living in an outdated ed system
June 20th, 2012
4:36 pm
Solutions, with all due respect, that is the most ridiculous response I could ever imagine! So you think that technology should be kept out of schools because they’ll “ruin it?” I agree that they are not digital natives as our children are; however, what is the point of the classroom environment, if you’re saying that teachers are ill equipped to keep up? I prefer to take a more optimistic perspective, and leave out hope that our public education will eventually get fixed, and schools will become “immersive learning environments” that embrace blended learning models of instruction. If they do not, then what is the value of the physical school environment other than to socialize with friends? What else will keep our kids “engaged” in the classroom and not bored from the morning bell to the dismissal bell?
living in an outdated ed system
June 20th, 2012
4:41 pm
Here’s a timely post about “Six Lingering Obstacles” to using Technology in Schools”"
1. Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession, especially teaching, yet there is insufficient training for teachers.
2. K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning
3. The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices.
4. Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward in a constructive way with emerging technologies.
5. Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place..
6. Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of traditional learning metrics.
This is illustrative of a walled garden education system trying to incorporate an “open architecture” digital technology driven world we now live in.
Herein lies the problem…..
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Greg Graham
June 28th, 2012
2:36 pm
I agree wholeheartedly. As a college writing instructor, I came to the same conclusions — had an essay published detailing my reasoning. Looks like Ms. Downey and I, along with many other teachers, recognize the power of digital technology both as a blessing and a curse. Here’s a link to my essay: http://to.pbs.org/rpROTi
Cobb’s great adventure in technology. We all should watch and learn. | Get Schooled
July 5th, 2012
8:26 pm
[...] (You may want to check out the earlier blog I posted about an early technology adapter and his second thoughts about incorporating cell phones into his classroom. ) [...]