Ed Tech Taught Us Technology Solves All Our Problems: But Perhaps Technology Causes More Problems and It's Time to Think Critically

I got to thinking that when I earned my masters degree in Educational Technology back in the mid-1990s, there was extreme excitement about the potential of the Web and computers in the classroom. There was reason to be: the web was wild and free and not the commericial, paywalled, dungeon that it is today. There also weren't fifty gazillion companies burying the truth in marketing malarkey. 

I was actually the first teacher in my building to use the internet during class as part of instruction. God bless that dialup connection! I even had to explain to students what that buzzing and chirping was while it connected. 

It was the CIA Worldfactbook site, that I think has now been dismantled under the Trump administration. It was an excellent source of information in those days, but it was free and loaded with information.

In reflection though, I notice that the EdTech degree program taught one underlying and implicit notion: Technological solutionism, or the idea that technology is an answer to every problem. It was doctrinal and implied in every course.

This notion is wrong, and it has taken me years to unlearn it through experience. Now, with the anti-screen movement as an example, we see the backlash against the idea that technology always has an answer.

What is a shame though, is that my Ed Tech masters program failed to teach any critical thought about technology. It was one big Tech-Promotion program. There were no courses in critical thought about tech, just teaching of the tenets of technological solutionism.

There should have been a strong critical, philosphical base to the learning; but instead, it indoctrinated us as "technology evangelists" to go forth into the world and spread the gospel of technological promise.

The question I have now is just how much of what was worthwhile in the classroom has been sacrificed, not because technology was better; but because we were carrying out the evangelical task of "spreading technological solutionism"?

Is it any wonder that we now have people thinking critically about technology's role in teaching and learning, and are finding that perhaps in our EdTech enthusiasm, that we might have caused the loss of something valuable?

My early education in EdTech was mindless indoctrination, as I fear all EdTech has become. 

EdTech education in the 1990s and today seems foster mindless and unconscious evangelists going forth into the world, still spreading the promise of technological solutionism. It is time to question the dogma and dig into the past and see just what we have done to ourselves as educators and to all the countless students who we subjected to our technological dogma. 

We might just find a more sober vision of technology's classroom promise.

The End of Ed-Tech Evangelism: Using Your Critical Faculties to Question Tech Obsession

One of the identifying characteristics of my blog, this blog, has been that it "advocates for the use of technology." Since the very first post here, I've often joined the educator chorus of singing the praises of "technology in education." Now, a few years later, I am beginning to wonder, in the spirit of Nicholas Carr, that perhaps I've been more "evangelist" than educator when it comes to "advocating for technology." I've been "spreading the gospel of technology use in the classroom and in my role as principal" for several years now, and I've come to some certain "Carrisian" (if I may invent a new word) realizations about technology myself which can be summed up thus: Technology is no panacea; it doth not an effective educator make.

Before the virtual spitballs start flying in my direction, let me explain myself a bit further. Being a "Tech Evangelist" gets it all wrong. There is "no gospel of ed technology." There's nothing to convert people to, and there's no salvation to be found in outfitting out classrooms with gadgets galore. Placing 30 laptops in a room does not necessarily transform that room into the new center of learning in Western Civilization. Why? It's simply this: the greatest feats of learning are not always found on the screens of our smartphones and tablet screens. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves, that "tech is better," sometimes a pad of paper and our favorite fountain pen is a much better way to engage our thoughts and the world.

Educators, I'm afraid, have been "spreading a utopian view of technology," as Nicholas Carr calls this technoevangelicalism, for some time now. I've engaged in that myself. I've been guilty of viewing any educational progress as "essentially technological." And, this means, I've been a part of the problem of "legitimizing" all these edupreneurs and opportunists who bombard my email inbox every day with promises of sure entrance into the "academic achievement promise land" if I will only purchase their products. Educational technology is the land of opportunity for many; including those who peddle snake oil and latest elixirs that cure every ailment in our schools. By being uncritical and faithful to the ed tech creeds, I am just as guilty as anyone of enabling that "commercial culture" that puts the profits of self and others ahead of what is sometimes best for the students in my building. No more.

If anything, ed technology needs it's own version of "Food and Drug Administration" that forces these edpreneurs and technoevangelists promoting their wares to provide solid evidence of their claims. Educators are a trusting lot. They want so much to believe that the nice gentlemen plugging his software program or tech device, or any other educational ware, really wants what they want: what's best for kids. But, while that may be true, understand that he is out to sell a product, not take care of your students.

We have the greatest "FDA" faculty in our heads as educators. We talk about critical thinking and independent thinking, then we need to exercise it when it comes to any educational product or technology. Anyone can claim their product is "research-based" and the best thing to happen to education since chalkboards. Yet, we are ultimately responsible for using this critical faculty to ask the tough questions of anyone promoting a product or even idea. We owe it to our own integrity and most of all to the kids we face each and every day.

By spreading a utopian view of technology, a view that defines progress as essentially technological, they've encouraged people to switch off their critical faculties and give Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and financiers free rein in remaking culture to fit their commercial interests" Nicholas Carr, Utopia Is Creepy and Other Provocations

BoomWriter Delivers a Free Common Core Aligned Personalized Literacy Tool

BoomWriter is an award-winning educational technology resource that is free for teachers and allows their students to create, share, and even publish stories and other original content.  BoomWriter’s interactive collaborative writing platform lets teachers deliver a fun and engaging personalized learning experience, while elementary, middle, and high school age students work online to develop their reading, writing, and peer assessment skills.  By blending writing and technology use—two skills of increasing importance for success in the 21st century world—BoomWriter provides teachers and students the necessary space to explore creativity, hone writing skills, and develop a deeper understanding of literary elements, all while aligning with the Common Core.

BoomWriter uses a simple process but with a technology twist.  The teacher selects a “story start”, either from a database of original first chapters or they can create their own prompt, and students then individually write what they think should be the next chapter/section.  The teacher reviews each submission online before allowing the students to read and vote on the anonymous chapter/s that they would like to see included as the next part of the piece.  There’s an easily managed voting system that fairly determines the winning chapter, while not requiring students to read all of their peers’ submissions (and they do not see their own during voting).  The process continues until the story is completed, which is determined by the teacher.  Once finished, BoomWriter will even convert the project into an actual published book containing the names of all of the participating students.  Completed books are then made available for purchase from the BoomWriter Bookstore.

BoomWriter can be used by teachers in a variety roles and educational settings, such as whole class, small group, before, during, and after school.  Boomwriter is also completely safe for students, since all of their work is created and stored in a closed digital environment.  BoomWriter is a helpful and effective instructional tool, allowing teachers to go online to monitor students’ progress, and provide individualized feedback and personalized instruction from anywhere.  Teachers are also able to provide helpful guidance notes to the group prior to each writing phase, creating relevant practice and application opportunities for specific skills and/or understandings covered in class.

BoomWriter started in a middle school classroom and now has a presence in close to 10,000 classrooms spread throughout more than 60 countries!  The more BoomWriter grows, the more ways teachers find to use this approach to writing in their own classroom.  One high school teacher in Kansas used BoomWriter with her students to create a modern day version of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible that explores the events of the Salem witchcraft trials.  According to the teacher, while collaboratively engaged in a contemporary retelling on BoomWriter the students explored “how the themes and ideas that Miller wrote about are still prevalent in today's world.”  

BoomWriter has also identified a way to support large urban school districts and inspire students to write using technology through its Technology Heroes Program.  Tech Heroes, which “helps teachers be champions of technology in their classrooms”, consists of BoomWriter partnering with larger districts and a third party corporate sponsor to provide every student and teacher with their very own free copy of the book they created using BoomWriter!  Tech Heroes programs have taken place within Boston Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, and the Oakland Unified School District, to name a few.  In a survey conducted of participating Tech Heroes teachers just last spring, 95% found BoomWriter to be an “effective instructional tool” and 97% of teachers would use it again in their classrooms.  One teacher raved, “I really enjoyed hearing my students beg to write. Students were thinking at home but writing in class.  They were talking about their stories during recess.  Students who never wrote full stories, began to write and complete their writing.  I am delighted with BoomWriter.  It is a valuable asset to my classroom.”

BoomWriter continues to add new free resources and features to support teachers, such as ELA lesson plans, providing teachers step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate elements of personal narrative or literature into their projects.  By the start of the upcoming school year, BoomWriter will also feature two new products for use within and beyond the classroom.  The first is an interactive vocabulary application called “WordWriter” that will deliver an interactive vocabulary experience allowing students to apply, share, and assess newly learned words in original content.  The second will facilitate non-fiction group-writing projects around Social Studies/History and Science/Technical subjects, and BoomWriter will support teachers with these efforts by providing free lesson plans.   

Increase the levels of collaboration taking place in your school’s classroom by registering for free at: BoomWriter!

Guest Post by Ashleigh West, Media Specialist at BoomWriter Media

Powerful Opportunities for Content Creation & Publication in the Digital Classroom

I began teaching in 1989. My first classroom didn't have a phone in it and the prime piece of technology I had was one of those old fashioned turntables. I remember using that to share my love of blues music with students by playing a Muddy Waters album for them in connection to a short story we were reading. I had a cassette tape player too, and I remember sharing a dynamic dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells” using this device. I also had access to a VHS player, and I remember sharing scenes from the movie Roxanne with my students as we read the play Cyrano de Bergerac. That was the extent of the technology in my classroom at the time, and yes I did have a chalkboard and colored chalk that students enjoyed using to share drawings and messages on my chalkboard throughout the day.

But the point of this trip down memory lane was not to tell you how old I really am. It was to simply say this: Technology when I began teaching in 1989 seems quaint and unsophisticated now, but even at that time, I pushed the limits of teaching and learning with the tools that were available. I used the technology, not for its own sake, but because those were the tools that helped me teach in the most engaging and effective manner. In a sense, that mindset is really the same mindset of a 21st century teacher.

Engaging students in my 1989 classroom and in a 21st century classroom presented the same challenges. I found myself trying to answer these kinds of questions then, and also in the 2006 when I began to heavily engage students in the use of digital technologies.

• How do you engage students who are more interested and engaged in things outside of school than inside it?
• How can I make the best use of technologies to both engage students in my content and teach them to make the most of the technologies themselves?
• How can my instruction best prepare students for a world outside of my classroom and school?

These questions are just as relevant now as they were then.

But here in 2013, digital technologies offer ours students so many more opportunities to learn in ways extending beyond the four walls of the classroom.. Here's what students today can do:

• Students today can be publishers of content. In 1989, it was a struggle to find ways for students to publish content. It was usually limited to either making physical copies and distributing them or posting on classroom walls. Today, blogs and content sharing platforms make it possible for students to publish for global audiences. Publishing content has become cheap and efficient in our digital classrooms.
• Students today can easily create multiple types of media content. During classes in 1989, my students were mostly relegated to creating content that was either textual or graphic, with the graphic content mostly being freehand drawings. Collages were also common. In today’s digital classrooms, students can still create text, but the tools to create video, photos, audio have all become prolific and easy-to-use. Students in today’s digital classrooms have power tools of multi-media content creation at their fingertips.
• Students today have many, many more choices of the kinds of content they can create, hence they are not limited to the research paper or dioramas (Anyone remember these?). In 1989, most of my students content creation was mainly writing papers, creating collages, making drawings, writing/acting out original plays, or creating other kinds of genres. Today’s students have new forms of textual media, new forms of graphical communication tools, and new ways to engage audiences digitally. Students in today’s classrooms can create their own apps, web pages, blogs, vlogs, with the whole global community being the limit.

For those of us who began teaching in the late 1980s, the classrooms of today offer our students so many more opportunities to engage in content creation, content publication, and content sharing. In spite of this, the fundamental educator mindset is the same. In 1989, to create an engaging classroom, I made the most of tech tools I had then. In 2013, that tech toolbox has expanded enormously, so teaching and learning through content creation and publication has expanded as well. It's this wonderful 1989 perspective of teaching and learning that makes me appreciate the greater possibilities of the 21st century classroom.

Top 10 Signs Your School Is Caught in a Time Warp: List for School Leaders

Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Lee Crockett write in their book Understanding the Digital Generation, "Schools have not recognized the changes that have occurred in the world around them and have continued to teach as if it were 1980." In the spirit of David Letterman, here's my "Top 10 Signs Your Schools Caught in a Time Warp." A list for school administrators.

1.  Your school policies work harder to keep web content out rather than bring web content in the school.
2.  Your school technology policies force students to "power down" their personal devices when they enter the front doors.
3. Your textbook budget exceeds your technology budget.
4. Social media rules condemn it as the downfall of public education.
5. Your web site hasn't been changed in three years.
6.  Overhead projectors still sit prominently at the front of your classrooms.
7. The idea of an interactive board is a bulletin board with push pin figures attached.
8. There's a card catalog file sitting in your media center.
9. Your school still spends and budget's money for journals and magazines.
10. You spend a portion of your day dealing with confiscated cell phones.

What would you add to this list? Feel free to share and add.

Future Educational Leaders Need Ability to Manage Technology Shifts

I stumbled across this post from Matthew Ingram entitled “Future Leaders Will Be Those Who Can Manage Technology Shifts.”

According to Ingram, “The big question for businesses today is how they adapt to (technology progression) and particularly how the leaders of companies handle the implementation of technology inside their organizations, and try to help their employees evolve and succeed. And the leaders of the future will likely be those who are flexible enough to move with those changes, rather than the people who moved up through the ranks the traditional ways.”

Leadership in schools will also require this same ability to adapt and help others adapt to the progression of technology. That means having leaders who embrace technological change rather than trying to keep it outside the building. (Hence my argument regarding Facebook.) If we are going to be educational leaders in this quickly shifting technological landscape, we need to be agile in every way possible.

In the video below, Allen Delattre makes an excellent argument for needing a new kind of business leader able to manage technology shifts. Much of what he says could be applied to educational leadership as well.

Watch live streaming video from gigaomtv at livestream.com
Leadership for Managing Technology Shifts

Fossils, Technology, and Leadership

I have read all the predictions about the"death" of the desktop and laptop. All the predictions say there's a migration to smart phones and handheld devices. In that spirit, this old digital immigrant educator is composing this blog post from my Droid phone using the app, Blogger-droid, while standing on parking lot duty. How's that for multitasking?

While I'm reluctant to place a great deal of faith in tech predictions, my being able to post this to my blog from a device while standing in a parking lot shows the unending promise of all-the-time Internet access. With my Droid, I can do everything that I'm able to from my PC.

I have conversations every day with school leaders who still shun technology. They barely use a cell phone. Mention Twitter and Facebook, their eyes glaze over, and their brow furrows deeply. I don't even have to guess their thoughts. "That stuff is useless and only causes problems." Any thought of using this technology is dismissed immediately.

Describing school leaders who have failed to embrace technology and this ever-connected world as "irrelevant" seems weak to me. What comes to my mind is the word" fossil." Perhaps our admonition should say, "Don't be a fossil." I say that with all love and respect, but there is greater lesson in all of this. We, and I speak to myself as well as all school leaders, don't really have choice. Disruption is happening all around us. No amount of policy and rules is going to prevent the all-the-time-connected world from moving forward.

Well, parking lot duty is ending and it's time to go back in the building, but here's a final though that occurs to me. I like this being connected everywhere. I can certainly understand why our students like it too. At least I'm a fossil who is always connected.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

New Google Chrome Extension Gives New Start Page Option

Google Chrome is my browser of choice. Today, I learned of a new Google Extension that allows you to alter the start page that you see when you open a new page in your browser. This new background gives you some more options on customizing the Start Page in your Chrome Browser. You can download the extension here.

New Chrome Start Page Using Chrome Extension

You can also change the background of that Start Page too. See Below.

Chrome Start Page with Custom Background

Tips and FREE Solutions for Managing the 21st Century To-Do List

In August, I will be conducting a session with teachers and administrators on how to use the free tools available on the Internet to manage their To-Do List electronically. After our conversion from Using MS Outlook web to Google Apps, which has a handy task manager, many of our staff are exploring options. In the following presentation, I will be reviewing with them 4 very good, but also very free, solutions for managing the day-to-day tasks that we face as administrators and teachers.

The first tool that I review is the simple Task List feature that comes with Google Apps. It is the tool that I currently use. It is simple to use and the best bet for a non-power user. It works well for those users who are not tackling a major year long task with lots of multiple subtasks.

The second application I review is Remember the Milk. It is a workhorse To-Do list that offers users a bit more functionality such as sending yourself text message reminders, and for having direct access on a smart phone. It is also a very good To-Do List.

Remember the Milk: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Another equally free and powerful To-Do List solution is Task Coach. Task Coach is an open source solution that offers users quite a few options when it comes to managing tasks. It allows for categories and subcategories. It allows for task tracking, and it has features that allow you to add budgeting. It is not as simple as the other solutions, but it is the most powerful To-Do List solution.

Task Coach Download: http://www.taskcoach.org/

The final solution I review in the presentation is not just a To-Do List. It allows users to place sticky notes on the desktop. It is called Hott Notes. Users can customize their notes, or they can use the To-Do List note on their desktop. You can add alarms to the notes, and it can be ran portably from a thumb drive. Hott Notes is a very simple sticky notes option.

Hott Notes Download: http://www.hottnotes.com/

Below is the presentation for my session. It provides an overview for each of these options.

Managing multiple tasks

View more presentations from John Robinson.

21st Century Administrator Book Review: Christopher Wells' "Smarter Clicking: School Technology Policies that Work"

"Technology policies and procedures often suffer from being too limiting or too nebulous, both of which are almost impossible to enforce." With that single statement, Christopher Wells captures, in his book Smarter Clicking: School Technology Policies That Work, the monumental task administrators and technology teams face when trying to develop technology policy. A technology policy that is too limiting hampers teachers and students' efforts to use technology for legitimate instructional purposes. Draconian technology policies serve to keep school systems and schools out of innovation and in the status quo. But even these efforts are akin to trying to plug holes in a dike with the proverbial finger. The dike has actually collapsed and our schools are flooded with iPhones, iPods, netbooks, iPads, and notebook computers, and no matter how much we try to keep them out, "It ain't happening." Smart technology policy according to Wells is flexible but clear.

Early in his book, Wells quotes Bruce Scheier from a book called Computer Crime Hype. "Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four." There is truth in that statement. Oftentimes, much of the efforts to create common-sense technology policy is hampered by the fear-mongering Scheier alludes to in his Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse statement. The truth is, developing technology policy is hard work. As Well's points out, it involves balancing three main things: legal requirements, safety of our students and staff, and protection of our school system's technology investment. The legal considerations involve considering stipulations under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Any policy and procedures can't ignore the law, and Wells does a fantastic job in his book outlining all the considerations surrounding each of these. He also goes into great detail about creating policy that addresses the safety of students and staff. One aspect of safety involves preventing our students from divulging too much personal information on the Internet, and the other is protecting them from inappropriate web content. Smarter Clicking provides a comprehensive list of safety considerations for policy makers. In addition to providing valuable information about Internet safety, Wells also provides a complete overview of what areas administrators need to consider when developing policy to protect the school system's investment in technological resources. He provides ideas for controlling access to network resources and for the protection of school system data. Both of these are important components of protecting the district's investment.

While Wells advocates flexibility for technology policy, he also recommends ongoing review of both technology policies and procedures. He suggests that administrators and technology teams get teachers and community members involved in the process of development. Technology policy and procedure development is a process that needs the input of each of these parties.

In the end, Christopher Wells' book is an excellent addition to the 21st century administrator's book shelf. At only 127 pages, it is an excellent starting point for discussions regarding what a technology policy should look like. In almost textbook fashion, he takes you through every single consideration for a "School Technology Policy That Works." While it is not what I would call an entertaining or even thoughtful read, it does provide a comprehensive reference book about school technology policy. It is certainly a book that I will be returning to again and again as we seek to keep technology policy current and workable.