More Fun Than Pen and Paper

From the Associated Press via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com,

"It's a lot more fun than [using] pen and paper," said Tori Stambaugh, 15, whose group is marketing a universal remote control that can operate a home's garage door, windows and lights."

Ok, so maybe the point of having laptops in the classroom is not to have more fun, increased engagement, increased time on task, interactive content, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, but not more fun. Why not?

Dennis Harter has two great posts on his Thinking Allowed blog. One comments on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article

The other great post refers to the New York Times article that panned laptops and implied that they are a failure in education.

Also, great comments from the blogs at Medagogy, Practical Theory, and 2 pennies.

So let me jump in. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, your thinking is everything. If we continue to think one way when the way our students learn and interact with the world has changed, then we are either not going to be effective, or, the world will demonstrate to us that we are no longer effective. Educators need to see the future for what is and let go of their outdated ideas. Many of us get caught up in what we want to believe. We hold onto outdated ideas contrary to evidence that we see around us. Educators have no problem saying that they are data driven when it comes to making decisions about lessons and curriculum, but then resist technology and it's implementation when all the data around us is screaming the world has changed.

Districts will adopt or drop laptop programs for reasons of their own. But can anyone honestly argue that technology is NOT going to become a greater part of our and our student's lives. Can anyone honestly argue that technology is changing the face of business, medicine, and science? No. So how we can we argue against utilizing it in our classrooms and getting it into the hands of our students. The world is going to require technology use by our students at some point. Don't we have a responsibility to prepare them?

Rob Jacobs

Comments

[Dennis Harter]

Rob,
Thanks for the positive feedback on my posts on laptop use. It is always re-affirming to find like-minded thinkers.

Your questions at the end are completely spot on. Yes, we do have a responsibility and it blows my mind that there are those who are so blinded by results, that they don't look at cause.

As I joked with Justin today, headlines should read, "Study finds bad teaching is bad for learning." Yet, instead we blame the technology rather than the pedagogy associated with it.

As you said, the futures of these students DEMAND that we include technology in their learning. Otherwise what exactly are they learning and for what?