I dream of a technology wonderland

Thinking about how to incorporate technology into my classroom reminded me of a rather mundane experience I had a couple of years ago. After my husband and I adopted a border collie, I suddenly found myself taking at least one LONG walk every day and I needed something to listen to on my iPod. Music wasn’t cutting it (lacks a beginning and end) so I started to explore podcasting, discovered an entire universe of fascinating conversations and I became a bona fide podcast addict. Not only did podcasts provide information on current events, history, politics, economics, and the arts, but it also taught me auditory learning skills and revealed to me that the nature of learning is about listening and exchanging ideas, asking questions and exploring controversial issues. In addition to standards from NPR (The Diane Rehm Show, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Science Friday, On the Media, and This American Life), I devour episodes of Stuff You Should Know, Open Source, The Moth, Radio Lab, and Democracy Now. Okay, so what is my point? Well, one afternoon while listening to Diane Rehm a caller identified herself as a high school student and said that her entire class was listening to the show that day. They had voted on a question to ask and she was elected to make the call. I was completely delighted by this and thought that it was an inspired idea by the instructor. Since then I have heard teachers and students call into various shows to make comments or ask questions and I always imagined that if I ever went into teaching, I would try to incorporate podcasts into my lesson plans somehow.

Obviously, I went into teaching! Or else I wandered into the wrong classroom on June 22… Anyway, when faced with the possibility of designing my ideal classroom, I immediately thought of how to encourage engagement with the content material in untraditional ways. I want my students to read texts, no doubt, but I am determined to avoid an overreliance on one textbook or even a handful of books. I want them to have access to many points of view and many different types of resources and media. I approached this activity imagining that I have millions of dollars to fund my wildest fantasies and I know that most of my initiatives are pipe dreams. But I can think big and experiment with cheaper or more accessible paths to those goals. Having my students subscribe to and follow one podcast for the length of one term, with frequent assignments that require them to engage in deep learning, is one example. Most podcasts are free and even if students do not have access to a computer or iPod, there are ways to provide these resources. I want them to think about how geography, history, economics and political science are relevant to their lives and using technology to expand their understanding of real world implications might inspire them to, well, pay closer attention!

After filling my drawing and wish list with high tech computers, multimedia stations, kindles, advanced mapping software and editing equipment, I had a sudden suspicion that the whole exercise was a trick. Did Jeff and Liz anticipate that we would create these wildly idealistic laundry lists of gadgets and devices only to crush our souls with the reality we will face in our schools? I think that it would be easy to get swamped by technology, to constantly have to confront the rapid rate of technological advancements, and to always be consumed with the innovations that you don’t have access to. When I was a theatre practitioner, I learned an important lesson about technology and I think it applies very well to teaching. While it would be awesome to have a limitless budget, a gigantic stage with the latest lighting and sound equipment, and access to video and computer technology, ultimately, theatre is about actors communicating with audiences using written texts. The best directors can create incredible theatre with a ten-dollar budget and a million-dollar budget. Teachers should approach the classroom with the same attitude; having access to technology can be helpful but not necessary to create a rich learning environment. In decades and centuries past, teachers did not have the same resources that we have today but they still managed to teach and their students still managed to learn. Technology can enhance learning but it should not be used as a crutch or an excuse for teachers to abdicate their responsibilities as communicators.