A Step Back In Time
A Step Back In Time…How have our classrooms changed over the years?
October 24, 2022
Teachers are professionals but we are always learning
Andrew Ryczek
Looking back to when I was in school to now teaching in a classroom (soon to be anyway) it’s crazy to see how much our educational technology and the tools available for us and our students within the classroom has changed in the last twenty years.
As a student I disliked chalk boards and to this day I dislike seeing them in classrooms. I always picture the moving JAWS when the captain takes his nails and makes the scratchy noise to gather the audience's attention.
It wasn’t until high school when my teachers started using smart boards and the gadgets that we now have in our own classrooms today. I still remember my 7th grade science class using the old overhead projects that would be wheeled around.
On average, “About two-thirds of teachers (65%) say they use digital learning tools to teach every day; 22% use them a few days a week, and 13% use them once or less per week. More than half of teachers (53%) report that their students use digital learning tools every day to learn.” You can Click Here for more information on the technology our students are using, how often they use it, and why they use it.
Each year our technology is growing and schools are pushing for more technology to be used within the classroom but is this a good or bad thing? I still feel like my dad in some sense (High School English Teacher) when he still uses paper at times because some school days the wifi can bug out or a bad storm can cause an interruption in the lesson you may be giving to your class that day. What will you do then? Will the students have a field day and do whatever they want or are you prepared for the worst to happen even when using technology?
My questions for you today are:
How has the classroom changed with your lifetime? I know it makes us all feel old.
What do you miss when comparing the old to the new?
What do you like and dislike when having to teach with technology?
Growing up in the 70's and 80's, microfiche, card catalog and overheard projector are the technologies that come to mind. Teaching now my 19th year, I've witnessed the change over from chalkboards, which like you, I was never a big fan of, to the Smart Board and all students having chrome books. While I enjoy this change and see it's unlimited uses and endless possibilities, I still believe good pen and paper is not obsolete. I see it's uses in taking notes, learning how to spell and work out math problems. There is definitely a hand, brain connection going on when you are physically writing, one that just doesn't happen when you are tapping on a keyboard. As for technology breaking down, which I cringe a little when I think about, has happened to me enough and at the worst times that I usually have some sort of back up just in case. It's a feeling of being on boat without a paddle. Now with text books being online and no physical copies in the classroom, it can be a little scary not having that to fall back on when needed.
ReplyDeleteI also remember wheeling that big cart with the T.V. on it into the classroom and going to the media center to take out a VHS tape to play it on. I really love the simplicity of the streaming services and having any video be at my fingertips.
We have come a long, long way, but I do feel some of those basics are still useful today. Thank you for this blog, it did bring me "back in time," and a little nostalgic for how things used to be.
My classroom has changed quite a bit during my career. When I began teaching in 2005, students only used technology if you booked the computer lab for the day. It was considered a special treat to be in the lab but it didn't offer a lot of flexibility if the lesson unexpectedly took longer than 1 class period. Now each student has their own Chromebook and and uses technology at anytime. It is challenging to make sure students are on task and not on watching Netflix or something else inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've had a similar experience with technology. It started to become integrated when I was in elementary school and we would have computer labs and the rolling cart projectors. By the time I got to high school we were using laptops to write essays. I integrate a lot of technology in my classroom because I love how seamless it can be but at the same time, like you said, you need a backup plan in case the worst happens. Students in my class each have their own chromebook and we are using the smartboard. I think it's still important that we incorporate technology because it will prepare students for the future but at the same time they still need those pencil and paper skills. I feel as though we need that healthy balance of both.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to you in the sense that technology in the way we see think of it today wasn't really present in my classrooms until late middle school. When I got to highschool, we had the chromebook carts that teachers had to reserve and were wheeled to and from the classroom. This limited the amount of things we could do digitally because it wasn't a guarantee that the chromebooks would be available. Now, my students each have their own chromebooks that they carry with them all day. This gives us a much greater access to be able to do things digitally. I would say I am 50/50 in terms of usually technology in the classroom for me personally. It honestly depends on the group of students I am working with. Sometimes students need to have access to an audio version of the reading or I'll have them type their responses rather than write them. But I do tend to find myself falling back on the good ol' paper and pencil. I find it more reliable, like you said, if the internet happen to be a little jumpy one day or 6 kids forgot to charge their chromebooks.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great questions!
ReplyDeleteHow has the classroom changed with your lifetime?
As a 90's kid I think I grew up during a dramatic shift in technology. When I was in lower school technology was mainly relegated to the computer lab room. There we used kidpix and Type 2 Learn. I'm still grateful for the typing skills I learned in that class today. By the time I reached 3rd and 4th grade computer carts became a thing, but rarely used. The only time we used them was to type up poetry, or short paragraphs. During Middle school and Upper school technology seemed to slowly flood into the classrooms with laptops then ipads. By my senior year all of my work was done on a laptop. The students I see now have been on ipads since they could hold one. It is second nature to them in a way that's strange to me.
What do you miss?
I think I mainly miss the attention span that comes with working on paper and not on an ipad, for myself as well as my students. I think sometimes education feels more like "edutainment" as my mom (a teacher) would say. I think students at my school also take it for granted in a way because it is so accessible for them.
What do you like and dislike about teaching with technology?
I love the access to all kinds of resources. It's amazing to be able to see what other teachers are doing. You can create really cool projects, although what I don't like is sometimes I get carried away and the project is more about what you can do with the app and less about what it's actually teaching the students. Also when things go wrong. The wifi really likes to cut out in my classroom!