A Few Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom
I spoke with two teachers recently about the role of technology in their classrooms--Melissa Woods and Levi Miller of Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy in Goleta, California. They both expressed mixed feelings about the role of iPads in their classes, which were introduced into the district this year. That's right, every student in Santa Barbara Unified School District gets their own iPad. Pretty remarkable. The mixed feelings sound something like this:
Good: Paperless, fewer things get lost, students learn basic digital literacy--a critical 21st-century skill
Bad: A lot of things can (and do) go wrong that are not easy to fix. "Oh, I forgot to upload that! Where's that folder?"
In my own experience teaching Computer Aided Design to sophomores, I've been amazed at how difficult small glitches can be to solve! And, as the teacher, I've found that I either know how to fix it or I don't. It seems there's less room for creativity than there is for non-digital problems. For example, if a student doesn't have a paper worksheet, it's not that hard to have them copy the questions onto a blank piece of paper. But on the computer if the program they're supposed to use has a feature that won't run, there's really no way around it. Finding the answer can be a frustrating odyssey through obscure and often-irrelevant tech forums.
Also, it's amazing how often people forget their username/password combination. I hope the proliferation of facial recognition technology will eventually alleviate this issue.
Good: Paperless, fewer things get lost, students learn basic digital literacy--a critical 21st-century skill
Bad: A lot of things can (and do) go wrong that are not easy to fix. "Oh, I forgot to upload that! Where's that folder?"
In my own experience teaching Computer Aided Design to sophomores, I've been amazed at how difficult small glitches can be to solve! And, as the teacher, I've found that I either know how to fix it or I don't. It seems there's less room for creativity than there is for non-digital problems. For example, if a student doesn't have a paper worksheet, it's not that hard to have them copy the questions onto a blank piece of paper. But on the computer if the program they're supposed to use has a feature that won't run, there's really no way around it. Finding the answer can be a frustrating odyssey through obscure and often-irrelevant tech forums.
Also, it's amazing how often people forget their username/password combination. I hope the proliferation of facial recognition technology will eventually alleviate this issue.
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