Transforming Education with Technology: Literature Review 2

Transforming Education with Technology: A Conversation with Karen Cator
By Marge Scherer, Educational Leadership, Feb 2011.

The article is an interview between Marge Scherer and Karen Cator, the drector of the Office of Educational Technology highlighting the goals and vision that the U.S. Department of Education has for schools nationwide surrounding technology. A lot of what she had to to answer was questions we have addressed in class- equal access, integrating technology into the lives of digital immigrants, digital literacy, and how to screen the information to which students have access. Karen Cator answered many of the questions thoroughly and addressed some major concerns, but she also brushed aside some of the questions or gave overly simplified answers.

She speaks first of a classroom in North Carolina that she visited watching for student engagement in classrooms with highly integrated technological systems. In this specific school, all students have their own laptops and smartboards and she states that "in several classrooms, I couldn't tell where the front of the classroom was... the whole space was a learning environment, and the technology was just part of the infrastructure." Hearing about the school in Moorseville, I pictured a setup entirely different from the more traditional desks facing the blackboard set up that I often encountered in elementary school. The idea of having a classroom that is more of a thriving organism of learning rather than having the teacher be talking at students hoping to get them learning seemed both exciting and scary to me at the same time. While Cator was praising this school, she stated that in a high school classroom where students were presenting "the teacher did not have to know how to create what the students created; she was looking for students' understanding of theme and ability to communicate."

While in one way I agree that by high school, most students are extremely technologically literate and excel in using technology for various means of learning and expression, at the same time it brings up the question of access. Though the teacher was looking for student understanding and their ability to communicate, is it providing students an equal opportunity to succeed when some students may have grown up with multiple computers in their home while others may have had the majority of their online access in school? I don't think so- I think it is important that teachers understand what their students are doing for many reasons, if not primarily so that they can help further student understanding and success. If students are using formats and means of technology that is above the teachers' level of comprehension, how can the teacher help students that may not understand?

Cator states that student access and leveraging student owned devices is all relevant to the local context. I suppose in a school where every student has a school provided laptop, all students will be familiar enough with internet resources to create presentations that their teacher may not be able to create as well. But putting the responsibility of devices partly on families and partly on schools and chalking it up to "shared responsibility" but then going to state that "we cannot have policies that exacerbate the digital divide" seems a little incomplete to me. If the national government is proposing a plan to integrate technology to enhance education, the plan needs to incorporate ways to prevent the digital divide from going, not just staying that some schools might be responsible, some families might be responsible, we'll figure it out on a local context. Chances are, the local communities that can't afford laptops at home aren't going to have as much involvement to figure out what is needed at school or aren't going to have the government funding to get the technology they need at school.

Beyond what technology can do for students and what a truly integrated classroom looks like, Scherer asks Cator how veteran teachers can "become more facile with technology". Cator believes the best way is to "focus first on their personal use". She goes on to list examples of how teachers of all ages use technology to video conference with family or grandchildren, shop, or reconnect with old friends. Though a lot of digital immigrants are capable of these things, in my opinion it doesn't mean that they have the same comprehension or capability as students who have been doing these things since they were toddlers. Cator says "I think we need to get beyond calling teachers digital immigrants, as if technology holds a certain code only young people can decipher. We can let that go." Though I'd like to agree with her, I think there are a few more years where a lot of teacher may be digital immigrants and it would be very time consuming for them to enhance their digital literacy. Do I think they should? Yes, especially because it would not only benefit them as teachers but benefit their students' learning, but teachers already feel a time crunch in everything they do, so part of the new plan needs to be providing teachers with access to technology as well.

The thing I liked most in the article is that Cator speaks of "digital citizenship" and what that means for students and teachers. "Just as we have always worked with students to play well on the playground, we need to make sure they learn to behave well in an online environment... it's really important that students understand that their voice is amplified and persistent when ti's online." This aspect of citizenship is something that I think has been greatly overlooked and that can be seen in the amount of virtual bullying and the blatant public displays of inappropriate behavior students feel comfortable posting in a public virtual setting. It is important that we not only teach students how to interact face to face, as that is still incredibly important, but also focus on the behavior, respect and community that needs to exist online.

"The ability of people to live in a globally networked society depends on developing a sense of personal responsibility and applying it online, just like offline." Students need to understand that just because it's online doesn't mean that other people won't see it or that they aren't accountable. In creating aware students that want to be upstanding, kind, educated, passionate moral citizens of the world, we need to make sure they understand this means they need to adhere to the moral code in regards to themselves, to others, in person and online.

Providing Equal Access

Though to me the heart of the matter of providing equal access is if you're going to require things to be done on a computer, then you need to allow ample time for them to be completed, it also goes beyond that in a lot of ways. Though time is always an issue to teachers in one way or another, I think providing time for students to do projects is fine, but what about students who don't have computers at home so they're less familiar with how to use them? In giving them 30 minutes to work on a project and giving a student who's been using a computer since age 4 30 minutes to work on that same project- who is bound to accomplish more?

To me that's where providing equal opportunity differs from providing equal access. I think giving everyone time in class is providing them with an equal opportunity to do work. I think providing equal access means incorporating technology fully into your curriculum and going over basics in the beginning of the year so that by the time big projects come around, students are a lot closer than they would be in level to one another. Obviously, some students will be better at certain things than others, but in providing a foundation and assessing where students are in terms of technology skills in the beginning of the year, it will make the life of both teacher and student a lot easier!

If you have two students who are frustrated with technology based learning all year because it's far less familiar to them than to the rest of the class, they are going to disengage in learning very quickly and turn their back on any project, research, social networking, etc that is based within technology. If you take the time to give everyone a foundation in the beginning of the year- let students familiar with technology explore further, let students less familiar get their bearings- you will then be providing not only equal opportunity when you give everyone the same tools and time to work on something, but you will also be truly working towards equal access. Giving students the tools and foundation to access information and technology in the same way as students who may already be familiar with it.

I think this will provide a challenge to teachers, especially because many teachers already feel that they have an overabundance of curriculum to get through before state testing or in school observation, but our job as teachers is to prepare students for their future and help them succeed. Success breeds success, so when a teacher provides a student with time to familiarize themselves with the technology and feel that they have equal skill to their peers, they will be much more likely to succeed than if they feel they're already bound to fail. Equal access isn't just about the same amount of time on a computer, it's about making sure that students can access and understand technology equally, or as close to equally as it gets. To me, that is providing equal access.

Digital Nation

While watching "Digital Nation", ironically enough I was instant messaging myself the points that struck me or that I found interesting. I have always been technologically inclined, I've had a twitter account for a year or so, I blogged when I went abroad to London to study abroad my junior year of undergrad and when I went to teach in South Korea post-graduation. I'm also an extremely social person, I'm chatty and outgoing and love to feel connected whether personally or via the internet. My first grade report cards detail that I'm a bright girl but overly social, I believe she told my parents if there was a mouse in the hallway running by, I'd talk to it. I've always argued to my teachers from middle school up that I could talk to my peers and learn at the same time. I told them that I was a social learner and learned through discussion and communicating, though my discussions and communication were not always pertaining to what was being taught. Thus I related to the MIT students claiming their ability to multi-task. Though once I decide to start writing my paper I usually try to stay away from distractions, it takes me a while to get there and I certainly do take breaks to check facebook, twitter, instant messager, I have to get in the zone before I can start writing a paper.

Before getting in the zone, I spend goodness knows how much time multi-tasking, looking through everything, avoiding my work until I suck it up and get to it. Now that most work is done on computers, it is hard to avoid all of the social-networking fun that exists at our very fingertips. Sherry Turkle made a brilliant point when she said after fooling around on email/calendar/networking site all day, "I haven't thought about anything hard. The point of it is to be our most creative selves, not to distract ourselves to death." I find this so true in my own life. As a nanny for twin 19 month olds, I have a sold 2-3 hours a day of glorious nap time. Recently I started reading the trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson and I got so into them that I read all three of them in one day each. Reading during nap time rather than mindlessly floating about cyberspace has been so rewarding; I in no way feel like I've done nothing with myself during my precious free time during my 10 hour work day. I often spend the whole time talking to friends online and looking at facebook or twitter. I get bored of it after about 30 minutes, but I keep doing it even though nothing is changing and it's far from interesting. It is so under-stimulating but at the same time has a certain element of addictiveness for me. I want more and more even though normally not too much is changing and I know I should be using my brain in a much more powerful way.

The same goes for the Korean students- when I taught English there all of my 3rd graders had smart phones. I couldn't believe it. When we talked about our hobbies, all of the boys and a lot of the girls told me that their favorite activity was going to the "PC-bang." I went into the PC bangs a couple of time and what the showed on the documentary was no over-exaggeration. I certainly think it is a national phenomenon to which some students are addicted. The rehabilitation camp was fascinating- that they had the children play outside, set up tents and do normal childhood things brought forth some of the worries that I have for my own children. I hope my kids play outside, feel a connection with the earth and nature as well as a connection with other human beings.

I also enjoyed the phrase "fluent in technology." I would certainly consider myself fluent in technology, I love new technology and am able to figure things out in little time at all. My mother on the other hand uses technology as a 5th or 6th language. She is seemingly hopeless in the most endearing of ways. She has an iPhone but calls me and asks me to look stuff up for her on my computer when she's out and about. She doesn't know how to install virus software on her computer and her emails are incredibly basic. That being said, she didn't grow up with any of this technology, it all came about when she was in her 30s after she was very set in her ways. I can certainly see how seasoned teachers would feel overwhelmed by what exists out there and the unfamiliarity with it all.

The last two things that struck me were the army simulator which I personally loathed and my shared worry about the ability to "power down" and have discussions and critical thinking without technology. I hated the army simulator because I don't agree with letting 13 year olds look at the experience of war as a game. War is anything but a computer game and having it be so one sided does not present the consequences and hardships that come with fighting war. I think it is a misrepresentation though I understand the Army's desire to try to effectively reach younger generations. Lastly, as much value as I see in technology and as much as I love my iPhone, kindle, laptop, ipod, etc. I also love having heartfelt, meaningful conversations beyond the realm of google, blogs, twitter and facebook, and I hope my children will share that ability and that love as well. As much as can be gained through technology, I do not want to be lost in a personal human connection.