Are we overusing technology in the classroom?... Finding an appropriate balance.
Are we overusing technology in the classroom?... Finding an appropriate balance.
Julia Lavin
Using technology in the classroom is a great way to get students engaged in learning. However, there are also plenty of activities and lessons that have been converted to digital media that may not necessarily add anything to the students' learning. Teachers and students spent two years either fully online or bouncing back and forth between online and in-person instruction. Has this change led us to be too dependent on technology?
Throughout the school day, when students are not working on their chromebooks on their desks, they are staring at the smart board in the front of the room. Teachers could now even
We all hear the talk about being sure to limit children’s screen time at home… but we are okay with allowing them to stare at the screen for 6 hours a day at school. As heard from The Critical Media Project,
On average high schoolers spend more than one-third of their day using digital media.
The solution is obviously not to get rid of the great resources educators have been collecting and creating in recent years to provide a more engaging learning environment for students. Educators need to look at the quality and quantity of the media they are sharing with their students with a critical eye.
When implementing technology in the classroom and presenting information in a digital way, educators should ask themselves this essential question:
Does this digital media enhance the student’s learning?
If not, we should try to find a piece of media that does enhance learning, or we may ask ourselves if our students could benefit from taking a break from media for this activity completely.
This is a really good thing to keep in mind when creating lessons. The question you pose, "does this digital media enhance the student's learning?" is something that is important to keep in mind. I think it was Read the World where it said that technology shouldn't replace the tried and true activities and strategies that teachers use. Instead, teachers should use technology to enhance or support teacher strategies and student learning. You also bring up a good point about screen time which I guess is something I haven't really thought of. Students already spend so much time on a screen outside of school, so should they really be spending all day on a screen in school too?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more about the overuse of technology in the classroom. It is such an important point to make regarding the overuse of smartphones by most children when they aren't in school, and then staring at screens in the classroom for most of the day, whether it be a smart board or a chrome book. I also wonder a lot about the lack of physically writing with the old fashioned pen and paper, and how that may impact learning because it doesn't activate certain parts of the brain. I remember in elementary school learning to spell words by physically writing them over and over again, making that hand to brain connection. I agree teachers need to be more selective and purposeful when choosing technology, and that all learning does not have to take place by staring at a screen and pushing buttons or moving a mouse.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the need to really examine our use of technology in the classroom. When I began my teaching career students didn't have chrome books and I still used pen and paper for most of my lessons. It was a treat to book the computer lab and use technology for lessons. I agree with Dawn and the concern with the lack of writing in classrooms. Personally I learn more by writing and taking notes and from being able to highlight and read an actual text. Technology can really enhance lessons but I think we need to be careful how much screen time students are getting in school and how we implement it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was hired 10 years ago the main focus of my demo lesson was whether or not I could effectively integrate technology into my lesson. Technology has now been embedded into our teacher evaluations. Technology should not just be through into a lesson just to say it's in there. As his blogger puts it, 'is it going to enhance the lesson". Technology does not always enhance the lesson or the assessment. In fact, when students take math assessment in my school online it hinders them. Sometimes getting the right syntax or math grammar doesn't exist the same way it does on paper. The format of our lessons changes the dynamic of the class, as well. Choose wisely fellow educators.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great point and something that educators need to reflect on. As you said, many parents set screen time boundaries at home, yet at school it seems that kids are surrounded by technology. I know in my district, each child is given their own chromebook, every classroom is equipped with smartboards, and most lessons incorporate technology in some way. Do you think schools should set limits on screen time/ create initiatives aimed at reducing technology time? I recently saw an article about a school that implemented "Mindful Mondays" where cell phones and chromebooks were to be left in lockers all day. This made the focus of instruction on tradition pencil and paper activities as well as group work and collaboration.
ReplyDeleteThis is most definitely a conversation that must be had and I think, as educators, our use of technology must always be on our radar, a priority, and a large consideration during planning. I think that far too many classroom procedures, class material, and homework have been pushed to online. There are clearly many pros to having one-to-one technology and there are so many amazing resources for us to use, but we must not let our children and the future lose touch with their peers, lose social-emotional skills, important for success in their lives outside of school, or the ability to function in a work or school setting without technology. The blog mentions a great point about how if we can not look at a lesson plan and be certain that the use of technology is going to enhance or better the lesson, than maybe it should not be used at all.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some really great points made. I personally started teaching and found ways to implement technology as much as I could. I started realizing that students were doing so much work on the screen that I needed to pull back on technology use because students were so glued to it and weren't being responsible with the devices. However, technology is so useful as well, having everything streamlined and in one place while learning to teach remotely was a very useful tool. We also found that a lot of jobs and meetings could be remote and provided many benefits. Right now, I find it so useful to find that balance of using technology so students can gain beneficial skills but also work with pencil and paper so that we can balance social skills as well. There are many advantages and disadvantages and I think only time will tell the effectiveness of technology.
ReplyDeleteI think balance is the key word when using technology in the classroom. Sometimes as a new teacher I can get excited by a new tool I find online or an app on my student's iPad and sometimes they lead to interesting lessons that add to a student's learning and other times they don't. Just because something is bright and flashy and new doesn't mean it has educational value. I think it's always important to ask yourself whether technology is adding something to your lesson that a pencil and paper couldn't provide. Technology is such a fundamental part of our lives however that it does not make sense to cut it out of the school day. A crucial part of implementing technology into the classroom should be to teach how to use it properly and safely. I've seen schools give every student an iPad but then not show them how to use it, because they assume they've already learned how at home. This is very different from the year long typing classes I was required to take growing up. The issue of screen time is also important and I think sometimes we only count the hours when technology is used for entertainment as screen time when school and homework hours should be included as well.
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