Week One Reflection

My first assignment on this blog is a reflection on two articles. 

The first, titled Beyond Technology Integration: The Case for Technology Transformation by Charles M. Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph presents an optimistic view of a whole new type of learning that can be accomplished through the use of technology.   One of the first things that caught my attention was the key markers of the industrial age versus the information age on Table 1, especially the first on the list.  Whereas standardization used to be the norm, now customization is.  This is true in many places, but not in schools.  The authors point out a fundamental flaw in our educational system - namely that it was designed as a response to the needs of the industrial age.  It was important to sort people into laborers and managers.  It was important to teach people how to behave as if they were on an assembly line.  It was not as important to teach people how to think critically, to master skills and knowledge at their own pace, and how to interact cooperatively with others.  

The article goes on to include some very interesting points. When the authors say that meeting today's educational needs "would require a learning-focused educational system that offers customization rather than standardization", I couldn't help thinking of recent conversations I've heard about so called flip schools.  The "normal" way of doing school is to go to the building, obtain information and skills from the teacher, and practice on your own for homework.  If the student gets stuck, ideally the teacher will help them the next day in class; realistically, the student typically gets an F on the assignment and falls behind his peers.  In flip schools, however, instruction is given at home via online videos, lectures, demonstrations, etc.  Then the students go to school, ready to practice, create, or synthesize their learning with the guidance of the teacher.  I can see potential in this to allow students to individualize their learning pace with the teacher as a guide, and the teacher could rather easily guide many students who were in different places along their learning journey.  

However, I can also see possible problems with this type of system.  I currently work at an alternative high school.  The students who come to my school have learned over the years how to fake success expertly.  Many steal others' work, copy it, and cheat shamelessly.  During my first year at the school, there were "independent study" courses in place which were basically just packets of work for the students to complete for credit.  As many readers can figure out, these courses were an exercise in finding the one student who actually did the work and copying her, or sometimes even paying her to do it for you.  (Thankfully, we eliminated those courses after my first year.)  I could envision a scenario where many students quickly figured out that if their customized learning pace just-so-happened to occur at the same pace as their peers, they could dramatically reduce the effort they had to put in by stealing, copying, and cheating.

One thing that really bothered me about this article was the section titled "How to Transform?".  The best nugget of an idea I could find was that we must use technology "for the purpose of transforming this [teacher-student] relationship."  That seems a far cry from a definite, or even satisfactory, answer.

I did appreciate the nod to various learning styles that technology can accommodate to through computer-based tutorials, simulations, and open dialogues.  However, I would worry that technology can leave behind kinesthetic learners, the very learners who are most neglected in traditional instruction.

Since this assignment is already well over the approximate aim of five-hundred words, I'll be more brief about the second article.  Of Luddites, Learning, and Life by Neil Postman was much more skeptical.  He begs the question: What is the problem to which increased technology in schools is the answer?  We are not starved for information, but we do need to teach students "that their own needs sometimes are subordinate to the needs of the group", "how to cultivate a sense of social responsibility", and how to "think critically, historically, and humanely".  From my perspective, that is precisely what many students who come into alternative education lack the most.

Postman also invokes Alan Kay, saying "any problems the schools cannot solve without machines, they cannot solve with them."  I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment - technology is not a silver bullet, a panacea for our ailing educational system.