Before we get too far away from this subject, I wanted to share my take on what I think is wrong with our text’s take on barriers:
Four Barriers? Really?
In Solomon, Allen, and Resta, the first chapter does provide an interesting and abbreviated over view of the evolution of the computer in education spaces. There’s some good information in there.
To my mind, the logical flaw in this collection of barriers is — at its base — a confusion between level of technology and level of implementation. The pedagogical question is whether its better to use a few simple technologies very well or a lot of different technologies? There’s a certain logic that says more is better, but from an access standpoint, the more different technologies you use — and the higher the skill threshold necessary to use them well — the more likely it is that the teacher will exceed his or her own skill level with using that technology, or the student’s ability to access the content, or both.
It boils down to finding a mix of “access to content” and “access to people.” My personal view is that — from an educational standpoint — it’s better to provide access to people who can provide information, guidance, and insight. This access requires simple technology like email, web pages, blogs, and aggregators. In my opinion, educators are building barriers by insisting that content repositories must include high-tech and high-bandwidth options like video web conferencing, flash-based media, and archived digital video and audio.
Putting it another way, you wouldn’t go into a classroom anywhere in America and expect your students to have access to a lesson that was presented primarily in German. This is especially true if you, as teacher, don’t really speak German yourself but are relying on a phrase dictionary and pronunciation guide.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:38 AM
I do think it is better to introduce students to multiple different types of technology. Different students will connect to different types based on their learning styles. This doesn’t mean that you have to master everything, but I do not think that it hurts to allow students to explore more in depth on their own.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I think that it is important to understand the basics like being able to email, use a projector, research on the Internet, type and save documents, and install programs. For some of us this may sound like the very basics, but for a lot of teachers and some students these things feel nearly impossible. While I think it is nice and useful to have some of the “fancy” tools, I think that it is even more important to be able to use the basic tools. A teacher is not going to let their class create a podcast if they can’t even figure out how to use the Internet. I personally like to know a little bit about all of the different tools out there and use them in my class, but I grew up using technology and I am not afraid of it. Someone that is afraid of technology is probably not going to do a very good job implementing a lot of different technologies into their classroom and they will be too nervous to let students figure things out on their own.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:00 PM
I as a teacher am the same way. There are some technology resources that are out there, but they can be a little intimidating to the teacher. I can use some things, but sometimes I am not sure how to incorporate them into a lesson. I think your students are the same way. Although they may be technology-savvy, they are sometimes intimidated by how you may want them to use the technology in their lesson.