Educational Technology

Education has changed. 

It's not the technology that has changed education. Well, the technology outside of education has probably changed what happens inside education, but education hasn't really changed because of technology.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

There are pockets where it's clear that technology has enhanced education. Sometimes, we see students learning to code, learning to build web pages, and learning to take something they have learned with technology tools to the next level. But often in education, technology is the system that keeps track of attendance and grades — oh, and a way for students to type their papers. Technology has not enhanced the classroom the way it has enhanced the world.

I struggle with where to go with these thoughts because I really think that students should be able to take the lead on technology in schools and create for the future; however, it's not simply that easy. A few years ago, I embraced the idea of allowing students free reign with their own tech devices — but then the devices become an interruption, a distraction. It seems we either want no technology or free reign. It doesn't seem like we can have a happy medium in the middle. I suppose because if we give limited access, it won't be limited.

I often have seen the role of the teacher in the classroom as the facilitator of learning. We have many tools at our disposal to make learning happen, as well as make learning fun. How do we get caught up in the old way of doing things when engagement is such a key? Email has been available in public schools since about 1996, so we're almost a quarter century into the Internet in schools. Yet, we are not much beyond the Internet in schools. It doesn't have to be all about the technology, but somehow we have to engage this tool in order to engage the students.