Speakout Columns
Technology and teaching should go hand in hand
Apr 12, 2007 2:04 PM
Mention some new technology to certain educators and they shudder with disdain — or fear. They are being shortsighted.
From the invention of the wheel to the Guttenberg press, technological innovations have made our lives easier and facilitated communication. The computer age is no longer the future, but our present. It is our job as educators to prepare students for life in a world that is structured around technology.
The Peer Intervention Program, where I work, helps teachers assess their current pedagogical practice and, by using peer coaching, aids them in making long-term changes. In order to accomplish this, as a peer intervenor I use a variety of strategies including the use of various technologies coupled with cognitive coaching.
Intervenors also can help teachers introduce technology into their classrooms in innovative ways. For example, class activities can be published on a blog, podcast, or on dedicated Web sites in order to connect individual classrooms with the rest of the world. Teachers can capture a student skit on video. The PowerPoint program is an exciting way for high school students to present a report. In short, creative use of technology in the classroom can motivate students to learn.
Teachers need to see the computer as an interactive tool that develops higher order thinking skills and offers them, as well as students, access to information from all over the world. But computers are not the only technology that teachers should get used to using. They also should be familiar with digital cameras, camcorders, digital recorders, tablet computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), digital timers and interactive whiteboards, among others.
Here are a few examples of how some of these new technological devices have helped in my work; innovative educators can adapt these examples to help them in theirs.
Videography is perhaps the single most important tool in the staff developer’s arsenal. It can help us lead participating teachers to a cognitive awareness that would otherwise take weeks or months to achieve. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a book. It can show teachers’ weak presentation skills or their lack of awareness of student activity. The teachers can then make the necessary corrections.
I have found that digital video can increase my impact on a teacher’s practice immediately. A participating teacher was having difficulty with her presentation skills. I used a digital camcorder to record her lesson and at the end of the session I interfaced the camcorder to my tablet computer. Within minutes, we were sitting quietly watching her lesson.
The teacher was enthralled and pointed out areas in her presentation that she wished to improve. She realized she was dominating the lesson even though the students sat in groups. She agreed that we should videotape again in two weeks. During the next recording, she discovered that she had made improvements and now saw other pedagogical areas she wanted to tackle. This was an ideal tool to create the cognitive dissonance that brought her to the realization that she needed to make changes.
Recently, I worked with a teacher who was having trouble pacing her lessons adequately. I suggested the use of a digital timer and she gave me a blank look. I then explained the value of the device’s multiple alarms for improving pacing in a lesson. She purchased one and, indeed, was able to improve her pacing skills. I again raised
