Some thoughts on technology in the classroom

Hello everyone,

A teacher sent me the following email:

Dear Dr. Combe,
I went over your past e-mails and I noticed that you have not written anything about the use of technology inside the classroom. Please enlighten me in this matter especially
a. What specific role does technology play in my class? b. How could I maximize the use of technology to my students who do not have access to the Internet at home?

In my box this morning, Ms. Karpin handed out fliers giving a list of computer terminologies to teachers who are technologically challenged like me. When I went over the list, majority of the words are so alien to me.

My concern is that I am one of those teachers who is content with the use of just one or two programs in the computer (Microsoft Word and Excel). For me, these are enough for my teaching needs. I find it very challenging to use the more advanced technologies in the market today because I feel that they only get more and more updated everyday and as soon as I have finished studying one, a bigger and more advanced program comes in.

Am I denying my students the chance to be technologically ready when I myself find it difficult to do so?

I must confess that I have a lot of ambivalence to the idea that we must use technology in the classroom. First, I'm an English teacher, and I maintain that all that's required to teach English is a book, a pen, and some paper. Second, I've learned from hard experience that a heavy reliance on technology can easily backfire when the technology fails, which it frequently does. Third, I must acknowledge that I am an immigrant to the Country of Technology; my students, however, are all native born; therefore, there is little that I can teach them that they don't already know, except for a few applications which they rapidly learn to do better than I.

On the other hand, I recognize that technology is a tool. Some forms of technology are better tools than others, but taken as a whole, modern technology (computer applications, communications, video, and audio--specifically) is the greatest collection of classroom tools the world has ever seen. Certainly I can teach my subject with only a book, a pen, and some paper, but why would I want to when I have so many other tools available to me?

Here are some ways I used technology:

In my classes, my students learned the language of video, then produced their own videos. I downloaded and printed books in the public domain for use in the classroom. I taught the proper format for research papers, then allowed my students to do the research online and have their computers arrange the format. (Then I used the Internet to find out who had plagiarized; I may be an immigrant to the virtual world, but I'm no fool.)

I have seen technology used well in other subjects while I've been visiting classrooms. I saw delightfully animated PowerPoint presentations introducing math concepts. I've seen film clips from YouTube used to introduce concepts in social studies and science. Every exotic or bizarre concept in every science can now be seen online, and the most recent advances in knowledge are available almost immediately. Calculators can perform amazing functions now. Experiments can be simulated--even dissection can be virtual.

For management tools, there is an electronic rollbook, which I have used for more than a decade, and which I can't imagine abandoning for the old handwritten variety. My students regularly email me (still! after all these years) to help correct their essays (from college!). I call parents with my cell phone, right from class, right when their child is misbehaving. I have used my cell phone camera to catch taggers and ditchers in the act.

For teaching, projection devices are far better than they were only a few years ago, and I would use them to project papers for peer editing, photographs, documents, and short videos. I kept my computer open to online dictionaries so that I had immediate access to a lexicon in twenty languages.
For students who don't have the Internet or a wordprocessor at home, I invite them to the library after school--or my classroom at lunch. Access is now universal.

And if it breaks down? I always have what I always had: my books, some pens, some paper, and a blackboard.

Jeff Combe

PS. When I don't know how to do something, I just ask my students. They know.