Tech or Treat?

I should have probably figured out how to publish this on Halloween. Kids walk up to your door all bedazzled or bedraggled, depending if they're a princess or a zombie, and say, "Trick or Treat." You smile (or frown), give them their candy and then send them on their way.

As teachers, do you think the students and parents notice why we use technology in the classroom?  Do we carefully analyze our methods and use technology strategically? Or do we use it to treat our students to something engaging and fun? Tech or Treat?

I would say...both.

As educators, I think we all understand the swinging pendulum in education. What was popular yesterday is dismissed tomorrow and then brought back in a slightly different form and attempted again next week. Will technology in the classroom fade away in the same manner?

To answer this question, I think educators, parents, and students must be clear about why we use technology in the classroom and how it differs from the other educational shifts that have faded into the background. Rather than dive into a philosophical argument, I just want to iterate that technology is just a tool...a trick, if you will.

Now, when I say the word "just", I guess that's really what I mean--it's just a tool to guide the students in their learning. Let me say, though, that it's a really cool tool. Compared to what we've had in the past, it's dizzying to keep track of what is available to us now.

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, and students used slates to chalk in their practice work in Spelling and Math. Chalkboards (or blackboards) came along for whole class instruction and were a mainstay in education for years. I remember when I got my first whiteboard with dry erase markers, something I still use. Overhead projectors are still popular. But now we have interactive whiteboards, document cameras, projectors, AirPlay, even 1:1 tablets and laptops. Technology means something different to us than it did to Laura Ingalls in her one-room schoolhouse on the frontier.

The tools used, though, are comparable in purpose. In the old-fashioned classroom, students used personal slate tablets; now students may use individual iPads, much more powerful tablets.

Regardless of the era, educators encourage students to claim their own learning.

So is tech used strategically, or is it simply for fun? Is it Tech or Treat?

The Tech: I will not attempt the technology in the classroom if it doesn't help to meet one of my lesson objectives, and I do not write my objectives for the technology. I want students to write with purpose, and many times they can do this with pencil and paper, but with the advent of blogging services like Kidblog and others, as well as the support of Google Docs, I can add deeper purpose and create a wider audience for the students. When I want the students to see, learn, and imitate the artwork of Rembrandt, I can direct them to the $0.99 app named after the artist. Likewise, if I want to use formative assessment to see if my students are understanding a presented math concept, I may use Socrative to take a poll or QuickKey to give a short quiz. The opportunities seem boundless. The learning roots more deeply through the use of the technologies available to us in 2014.

The Treat: This is the fun one. Do your students' faces light up when you introduce a new tech tool? When they explore a new app and dig in, are they focused? Most students we encounter these days have grown up with the technology, and even if they haven't, they desire to dive in and go for it. Students appreciate when the teacher takes risks, which creates a safe environment for them to take risks, which in turn pushes them farther than you may have ever thought possible. They are engaged. And when students are engaged in their learning, they will amaze you. If we can use the tech to excite them about their learning, half the battle is won.

Tech AND Treat: If you are completely honest with yourself, I would bet that you're tempted at Halloween to scare the bejeebers out of those kids, complete strangers, who walk up to your door and ask for candy with a "Trick or Treat". But I would also wager that you would then turn around and enjoy giving a treat to the polite and expectant child. The smile and the thanks is worth the hassle. Along those lines, technology is a type of tool, perhaps a "trick", educators carefully use to deepen learning, but if you look closely, you will see the thankfulness in a student's demeanor when he or she receives the "treat" to explore and create with the technologies available today.