Will Technology Help Science Teachers Think Different?

I watched a lecture  presented a couple of years ago by Allan Collins which was hosted by The Learning Sciences Group at Penn State, and organized by Penn State Professor Richard Duschl. The title of the talk was Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, and is title of Collins’ book, co-authored with Richard Halverson.  The lecture is long, but you can scroll through the slides which accompany the video, and listen to various parts of the talk, and still get the main idea of his ideas about the future of education.

Yesterday I posted an animated short designed by Keven Temmer that was a project completed for one of his technology courses.  The animated short was an award winning piece of technology, and as I mentioned, was highlighted by a number of organizations, including the NSF and NASA.  His work prompted me to return to this earlier post.

Technology’s Effect on Mainstream Education

According to Collins, in this “age of technology,” the very technology which consumes so many of us, has had little effect on mainstream education. As he pointed out, schools spend a lot of money on technology, but this technology is on the periphery of learning, and has not really been utilized to help students learn. Indeed, we’ve spent so much on technology, that I remember visiting a science and technology center in a North Georgia school district, that piles and piles of “old” computers were taking up space, replaced with “newer” computers.  Think different, one of the motto’s of Apple has not arrived at our classroom doors.

Technology Fiascos in Georgia

In the county that I reside, a former superintendent (he was fired because of his forward looking views on the use of technology) nearly implemented a program that would have put lap tops in the hands all elementary and middle school students. This was a huge project (about 100,000 students), but he was accused of ramming a technology program onto schools without much research. In truth, he was going to run a “pilot” program at several schools, and then use this experience to determine the next move for the district. That never happened as he was run out of town, especially by the right wing newspaper, The Marietta Journal.  Here was an example of superintendent who could be characterized as a “think different” educator, but his ideas were too crazy for the newspaper’s editors, and many citizens in Cobb County.

Now, several years later, a prominent Georgia legislator wants to have the state purchase iPads for every middle school student in the state as way to reduce costs of textbooks by using the iPads as eText readers. If the reason to do this is simply to replace textbooks with digital texts, then little progress will be made in fostering student learning.  A shift in the pedagogy needs to accompany such as grandiose scheme.  This could be a “think different” moment, but I doubt that teaching will change simply because someone wants to replace textbook with digital texts.

Schools today exist within a technological and scientific global environment held together by means of the Internet and various tools that we use to communicate, do research, and conduct business. The world outside of school has consumed the world of technology, but unfortunately, our schools have not utilized the remarkable tools available to us to promote learning, and growth, and to move schools in new directions. That said, there are many teachers who have been pioneers in the use of technology in their classrooms and districts, but the overall trend in education is one trapped by conservative approaches that center around standardizing the curriculum, and testing the heck out of our students.

Incompatibility Between Schooling and Technology

One of the important ideas that Dr. Collins outlined was that there is an incompatibility between schooling and technology. In his analysis, uniform learning, standardization, the value placed on testing the knowledge in kids heads, learning by absorption coupled with the teacher as an expert is incompatible with technology, and the reform that is needed to incorporate technology into learning.

In fact, he suggests that schools will become less important, that the seeds of a new system of learning are emerging (he outlines these and they include ideas such as: home schooling, distance learning, adult education, education TV, web communities, “technical” certifications, and Internet cafes), that the industrial revolution model of today’s schools will give way to a new model of school, and will lead to lifelong learning.

One of the places on the net to keep up with technology, change and education is Ken Royal’s Royal Treatment, where you will find interviews, tech how-to’s, and opinions.  Ken is a former science teacher and technology specialist who now is senior editor, technology and products for Scholastic.

Self-Directed Learning

Another idea that Collins explores is the idea of self-directed learning, which of course has been an idea that emerged from thinkers such as John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and Carl Rogers, and creative teachers who provided the real-world experiences for theorists to develop their ideas.

Schools currently do not foster “intrinsic motivation,” but because of the increased movement toward having students learn the same thing at the same time, regardless of previous learning experiences, sets in motion a system of learning that says little to us about intrinsic learning. Simply importing technology into the classroom will not result in intrinsically motivated learners. For example, simply moving textbooks to an online or computer environment will not necessarily change the way we teach, or the way students learn. A deeper paradigm shift is needed to incorporate the ideas that Collins is suggesting. For me this paradigm is the humanistic science paradigm that I have explored on this weblog.

Collins explores ideas that I think are compatible to creative teachers, and educators who want to put students at the center of learning, and encourage new ways to educate youth.

Self-directed learning, inquiry teaching, and problem-based learning are examples of approaches to teaching in which teachers “think different.”

There are many examples of programs, projects, and teachers that think different. I’ll explore some of these in the days ahead.