Don't Take Technology for Granite Old Fashioned Computer

Gost of united states know improve than to apply technology for technology's sake. The Shiny New Tech Syndrome is taking the earth by storm, and with the added pressure of finding new ways to improve educational outcomes, nosotros endeavour our best not to exist tempted. Just there are some things–certain methods, activities, and tools–we notwithstanding presume can exist enhanced with a little computational flair, when really, if we stopped to question ourselves, nosotros'd find them best delivered the onetime-fashioned way.

The benefits of integrating technology into learning are extremely well-supported, and range from increased motivation to enhanced cognition. Experts and non-experts alike have seen composite learning heighten students' advice skills, digital fluency, engagement, independence, critical thinking, and comprehension in general. Yous'll find extensive scientific support for blended learning with a unproblematic Google search.

One study, conducted at Canterbury Christ Church building Academy in the Britain, provides an example of this kind of support. Over a ii-yr period, researchers nerveless over 300 student opinions on composite learning based on its use in sound lecures, seminars, discussion boards, and wikis. Students found the blended learning approach very flexible and, in many cases, preferable to traditional face-to-face up instruction.

They cited flexibility and back up, motivation and idea-sharing, interaction and caption of ideas, communication and teamwork, and project leadership skills as benefits.

In another study, researchers at the University of Colorado-Bedrock measured the touch on of multimedia applied science on project-based learning. In completing the projects, which were built around real-world problems, some students used a variety of technological tools, including video cameras, digital editing, and Web authoring tools. Students who used the tools were found to be more than collaborative and song inside their projection groups. They also scored higher on advice and audition awareness, presentation and design, and content comprehension. Teachers, meanwhile, establish themselves more likely to serve as a facilitator or coach, rather than a lecturer, when their students used the technology.

There are countless studies confirming the educational benefits of engineering in learning, and they correspond educatee bodies beyond the world in a variety of disciplines. Just what happens when technology is mis-used in didactics?

Learning From Computers vs Learning With Engineering

If we're going to integrate applied science into educational activity successfully, we need to understand the deviation between learning "from computers" and learning "with technology." When students learn "from computers," the computers substantially serve as data delivery systems. In this capacity, applied science simply presents a pupil with basic knowledge. Learning "with engineering science," by contrast, ways using applied science equally a tool that can be applied to a diversity of goals in the learning process. The signal is, educational engineering science has avant-garde far across what can hands be measured by standardised tests, and if we do not take advantage of this fact, so nosotros are doing our students a disservice.

Just in that location are barriers to adopting this kind of attitude. Typical issues include bourgeois teaching practices, lack of teacher training, not enough instructional preparation time, and inadequate admission to educational software and hardware in general.

A report surveyed sixty Australian teachers and found that, even when teachers had technical skills, they were reluctant to implement technology into their lessons. Teachers were not convinced of the benefits of computers in instruction, and supported very limited roles of technology in learning.

Much of this appears to lead back to the "learning from" versus "learning with" stardom.

In a survey 2,170 U.Due south. school teachers, two groups of teachers emerged. The first grouping believed that computers are "tools that students use in collecting, analysing, and presenting information," while the second group believed computers are "teaching machines that tin be used to nowadays information, give firsthand reinforcement, and rail educatee progress." The beliefs and instructional practices of a further 4,083 middle and high schools teachers were examined, with the finding that teachers who viewed computers every bit tools rather than teaching machines were more likely to utilise technology in their lessons.

The sooner we all realise how valuable technology can be as learning tool, the sooner we volition see a positive return on our investment.

"Technology must be used for a applied purpose," says Ben McNeely, a pupil at Due north Carolina State University. "That is, taking the fundamentals and technology learned over a semester and applying it to a final project, where creativity and uniqueness is required and rewarded."

Using technology for practical purpose, and not for the sake of using technology, must be the clear objective. Mastering the functions of the latest apps and gadgets is non an educational achievement in and of itself. What matters is not how many tools a student knows to operate, merely how well she uses them to enhance her understanding of the world.

When Not to Use Technology

one. When it creates harmful shortcuts.

Some math teachers ban calculators, thinking students will use them to solve basic problems they should be able to solve on their own. Some English language teachers don't permit Spell Check. Edtech presents u.s.a. with a similar claiming: If we give every educatee an iPad from the age of 5, volition they ever learn to use an bodily library? Will they develop healthy imaginations? Exercise all five senses on a regular basis? This is something to watch out for.

2. When it undermines deep learning.

Experts have found that educational technology is most powerful when used as a tool for problem solving, conceptual evolution, and disquisitional thinking. Only if integrated inappropriately, information technology can backfire in a manner that undermines all 3 skills. Be sure you are using technology to enhance the way students think, non but the mode they memorise facts.

3. When it undermines bones learning.

Technology may in fact be quite intuitive for today's younger generations, but it shouldn't supervene upon the basic skills our society values. Take the calculator case once again, for example. Even in our technologically advanced age, it'southward not socially adequate to take to whip our your iPhone to calculate a time zone difference of, say, five hours. We nonetheless need those basic skills.

4. When information technology decreases interaction.

At its best, technology is an incredible social tool, connecting people around the world. Merely it can also reduce the chances of interaction and the learning experiences that come with it. When you lot tin can await up the right answer on Google, y'all don't get to benefit from hearing a friend suggest the incorrect reply, or hearing a teacher talk over why it's the wrong answer. Humans should learn from 1 another, non just from computers.

5. When it reduces the run a risk of failure.

This is a large one. Mistakes create learning experiences. Without a struggle, nosotros oftentimes end upwardly with shallow learning and fake confidence. Don't apply applied science to create perfect students.

half-dozen. When the appeal is purely aesthetic.

Don't fall into the trap of the Shiny New Tech Syndrome. Simply call back: If it looks better, information technology doesn't necessarily promise more effective learning, and it doesn't necessarily align with your curriculum goals.

7. When information technology contributes to information overload.

Part of technology's educational appeal is that it allows students to learn more, faster. But it'due south worth stopping to enquire ourselves whether or not this is true. Information overload volition always limit learning, no matter how much information we are exposed to and how many tools we take to process it. Practise not assume your students will be able to have longer tests just because they are encountering a greater volume of information.

8. When you don't accept the time to integrate it.

If you're not going to integrate it correctly and fully, don't integrate it at all. Believe information technology or not, the way you implement engineering science into your lessons is just as of import equally the decision to practice so.

ix. When it doesn't back up connecting and sharing.

Don't have your students blog if y'all're not going to permit them publish what they write. If they tin't share information technology, it'south non blogging–information technology's learning to blazon.

x. When it doesn't teach students almost technology.

I call up playing Number Munchers in master school. It was a stimulating relief from worksheet-style multiplication tables, but it didn't teach me a thing about computers. There's so much to learn nowadays in the form of coding, design tools, and advanced gamification–why wouldn't you kill two birds with i stone?

11. When students accept already mastered the task.

Multi-modal learning is undoubtedly one of the strongest types of learning, but avoid scenarios in which yous're not adding annihilation to the experience past incorporating engineering. Does your French class really demand to exist studying the vocab they've already learned with virtual flashcards? Sounds like a waste of fourth dimension to me.

12. When it hampers communication.

Don't get me wrong–studies have shown that technology seriously enhances communication. Anonymous discussion boards do wonders for shy students. What I'm getting at is the "like" push effect: Are you lot really using your brain to communicate if you're just clicking a button?

13. When it limits cocky-expression.

Sounds impossible considering all the creative possibilities technology affords, right? Well, remember again. Some of the world's best writers, artists, scientists, and thinkers produce their finest work with the simplest tools. Don't let technological inspiration replace real globe inspiration.

14. When it can't illustrate a concept.

Sometimes it's but more effective to illustrate a concept using the raw materials around you. Plus, environment is important: students remember where they learned something, which helps them recollect the thing itself. A calculator screen is non a memorable environment.

xv. When technology isn't relevant.

What! Engineering not relevant? How tin can information technology be possible? It's very possible. Don't make your students nowadays projects using Power Point if they can illustrate their topic more creatively (and accurately) with a mini-field trip on schoolhouse grounds, or a scientific experiment, or an onetime-fashioned Sharpie sketch. Let them utilise any method of presentation is most constructive, and relieve the technology lesson for when it counts.

"The fact is that education has already been automated," says Temple Academy educator Jordan Shapiro. "Tests, quizzes, textbooks, and Powerpoints are all products of a technological way of knowing the world. They are all ways of objectifying knowledge. My enthusiasm for edtech stems from a promise that information technology will teach u.s. to handle technological ways of knowing more than efficiently and interactively, using gadgets and devices.

However, this is simply an advantage if it ways that teachers can get dorsum to what they do best: educating instead of disseminating and assessing."

Image past Maximidia

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