Further Reflections on Week 1 Readings

I've been reading some other people's blog posts reflecting on the chapters for this week, and it has gotten me thinking about a major trend I've detected in one form or another in several posts.

A theme I've been noticing in a lot of responses to the first few chapters, particularly the first chapter, is the idea raised by Roblyer about the limits of technology (Roblyer, 9). It's an idea that I've found really interesting and that I'd like to dwell upon briefly.

I realize that it might seem a tiny bit counter-intuitive to consider this issue in a class centered on technology in the classroom, but I think it's actually pretty important for us to consider. If we're to craft our own personal philosophy about technology in the classroom and its role in our instruction, we have to also consider why we use technology in our classroom in the first place.

Now I personally feel that technology can't replace teachers. Good teachers, as Ken Robinson points out in his series of talks, provoke, mentor, foster growth, and a whole host of other roles. Technology can facilitate those roles, but it can't be those role.

This, I'm now just realizing, is the reason we've been considering technology in the context of specific lesson plans and considering the overlap between technology and instruction. We can't just integrate technology into the classroom without first considering why we're integrating said technology in the first place.

One of the major points that has been noted by multiple responses to the first chapter is the notion that new technology is not necessarily better technology. I think Americans are often obsessed with whatever is new and shiny. We want whatever latest version of the iPhone is out, and we want it now (thank you very much!).

However, I don't think our obsession with what's new and exciting is isolated to just technology. It's also an issue for curriculum and instruction. It's the same reason that no one can agree upon an overarching framework for public education: we quickly get bored and frustrated when we don't immediately see results.

And it's for this very reason that old technology and old instruction shouldn't be immediately abandoned whenever something new and exciting comes along. We should carefully consider what's new and ponder whether it's actually beneficial to replace what's familiar with it.      

References:

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (ed. 7). Boston: Pearson.