Students: Are You High Tech or Low Tech?

in Education by Kathy Teel — October 12, 2010 at 9:42 pm | 0 comments

Changing Times, Changing Technology

From 2003-2006, I taught in a graduate school in Tennessee.  In late August, 2003, I walked into my classroom for the first time and saw that fully half the students had laptops open in front of them.  This was new to me; nobody brought laptops to class when I was in grad school.  The classroom was completely wireless, and as I spoke, students typed their notes into their laptops.  Every now and then I would forget a detail, and fast as lightning, someone would Google it.  Honest to goodness, it did not occur to me that they were doing anything on there but taking notes.  I learned later that they were IM-ing each other their approval of my teaching, and as I talked, notes ranging from “This might not be too horrible,” to “She seems really cool,” were zipping around the classroom.

I’m not as surprised anymore to find the laptops open in front of me when I lecture.  I’ve only had to tell one student that she wasn’t allowed to bring her laptop back to class, because I think she was watching TV or reading fanfiction—her random muffled laughs weren’t directed at my subject matter.  But technology has moved way beyond the laptop—students jot notes on tablets and i-pads, record with digital recorders, and in many places, even download their textbooks into Kindles and other e-readers and highlight the relevant passages in lieu of taking notes.

I’m not talking about “technology in the classroom” like you usually hear it—that’s what teachers do to keep their classes current and relevant.  It’s interesting to see what students are doing, and how they are assisting themselves in learning by using their cell phones to record lectures, or whatever it is.

Technology as an Educational Tool

Now, I’ll just be frank here.  I consider technology a tool, and I know that the tools you use affect the way you learn.  I’ve got that.  But technology isn’t an excuse for not learning; you won’t get away with “My teacher was too old-fashioned.”  My main interests in my own classroom are to improve the way students think, to give them the basics of my subjects so that they can learn more if they want to, and to help them connect the dots between past, present and future (anyone who thinks we aren’t affected by events on other continents that happened 2500 years ago should come sit in on my class).  Sometimes that can only be done with low-tech tools—like lectures, readings, and papers.  Things that have been around as long as writing has been.  I am not one of those teachers who cares in the least that a younger generation learns best from Facebook or YouTube.  I will not compress complex concepts into texts or tweets.  But online discussions, email communications, or digital voice recordings…no problem.

The difference is that whether a student uses an i-pad or pen and paper, they are still required to think, to confront the material and its implications, and to produce an analysis (usually written) of that confrontation.  As a teacher, I won’t compromise the material, but I might be open to finding new ways to communicate it.

How Do You Use Technology to Learn?

But for you students out there, I’d be very interested in knowing how you use your tools to help you learn.  Does anyone take pen and paper notes anymore?  I do, but there’s a lot that I write that goes right from my brain into a computer.  What role do your cell phones, laptops, e-readers, Facebook accounts, blogs, and other technology play in your classroom attendance, your comprehension, and your homework?  Do you have teachers who just can’t accept that, or teachers who encourage you to use any means available to engage the material?  And are you as competent in the low-tech ways of learning as the high-tech?  Maybe e-readers aren’t going anywhere, but neither are books.  Both students and teachers need to be able to navigate both worlds.

Tags: classroom i-pad Kindle lecture technology