Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Maybe, but you can definitely teach this old dog to look at things from a different perspective.
Now, should I consider myself an old dog? Probably not. I’m ten years into my career, believing that I’m pretty tech savvy and up to date with the latest in educational technology.
Photo by kaboompics on Pixabay
In 2013 I was using wikispaces – remember wikispaces? – to keep my students up to date on assignments and upcoming work. When that site shut down, I moved to WordPress before my school division made the move to Google Classrooms pre-pandemic. From there I joined my division’s team to support teachers as we rolled out Edsby and started to phase out of Google Classroom.
And there were so many things in between that I gave a try… Edmodo, Class Dojo, Classcraft, among others that are long forgotten.
My personal view of educational technology has always been to make things accessible to students from anywhere – removing the excuse of “I forgot”, and also to save valuable paper as budget cuts have hit my schools. My biggest move into using technology was forced when we ran out of paper (now known as the great paper shortage of 2015) and I shifted almost everything I did into a digital space.
After reading Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change by Niel Postman, however, I’m recognizing that I have always been unconsciously making the assumption that new technology = easier life = GOOD.
I’ve always been ready to jump on the next trend and give new tech a try, and have never stopped to think about the fact that “.. for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.” (Postman, 1).
Where do I go from here? I think the thing to do is to start asking myself some very necessary questions before I commit to trying the next best thing in EdTech. I’m going to begin with the questions that Niel Postman covered in his talk:
- “Who specifically benefits from the development of [this] new technology?” (Postman, 2)
- “Which groups, which type of person, what kind of industry will be favored?” (Postman, 2)
- “… which groups of people will thereby be harmed?” (Postman, 2)
- “… why do [I] do this?” (Postman, 3)
- “To whom am [I] hoping to give power?” (Postman, 3)
- Does this technology have a prejudice? (Postman, 3)
I am excited to apply these questions to new and exciting technologies, and try to further pull apart if a technology is going to propel my students’ learning forward, or take us back.
Hi Jenni!
I completely forgot about the transferring to computer. Now when I started teaching it was middle of the pandemic so all of my things were made online and easily posted on Goggle classroom. I had a lot of teachers questioning why I was having such an easy time with online teaching – maybe because it was part of what I was taught or because I WAS the online learner?
I look forward to reading about your journey with Education Technology this semester!
– Kelsey
I was also lucky to have already been taking advantage of the online space just to make my own life easier. That being said, it was still a HUGE shift and totally changed how I do things now. I can see how having digital lessons can support all of my learners, because they can access them from anywhere at anytime if they need a refresher.
It’s funny because I still feel like a new teacher, but I have already seen so much change. I can’t wrap my brain around how much more change we will see in education in the next 10 years.
Loved reading your blog, probably because I relate so well with few things: first saving the environment; I hate needless use of paper & plastic.
The articles that Katia shared: Five thing….. and Postman. They were so good and so very valid
Thanks
Appreciate it Mandeep!
Postman has some really great thoughts and ideas, and I love how relevant they are even 30-40 years later.
It’s a fine balance between cutting back on paper use and not relying on computers too much
Yay! I can finally see everyone’s blog posts and do some readings.
I enjoyed reading your post about your take on ed tech in the classroom. We are opposite in the fact that you consider yourself tech savvy…I definitely am NOT- lol!
I like/agree with your comment about asking yourself questions before jumping right into using new technology, especially the “who does it benefit?” Personally, I am always thinking about my lower-income students and families (especially during the pandemic-when people just assumed that everyone had some sort of technology to use), which we know is not always the case!
I look forward to reading more of your posts.
I agree. During the pandemic, my school division sent chromebooks to homes that did not have access to computers and made sure they had a wifi connection. At one end of the spectrum I think that I overdid it with technology following the pandemic. On the other end, are computers the way of the future, and something we need to embrace even more?