Didactic Synapse

A student recently asked me to respond to some questions about technology in the school. Because my insights are glorious and must be appreciated by all the world, I am reprinting them here.

Note: I did a Google Image Search for “technology in the classroom” and found the graphic on the right. It sums up the technophilia so common in our current era: Why is the old-school image on the left in grey? Why is the teacher (or student?) smiling so much more on the right? Why have the diagrams of the right triangle and cube been replaced with pie graphs and bar charts? Where are all the books? It’s a series of subtle demonizations of quality forms of education. Of course we should add new tools to our education toolboxes all the time. But when we get a new digital gadget, we don’t have to throw away our hammers and screwdrivers.

1. Do you believe technology is setting students up for failure or success?

Both. As Neil Postman explains in his 1992 book Technopoly, the technologies around us are tools, and tools can be used for all kinds of purposes. A hammer can be used to make a dollhouse, or to bash in someone’s head. Chromebooks and cell phones have similar powers. It all depends on how they’re used. I think the two biggest dangers of technology in the classroom are (A) thinking of it as a “silver bullet” that will fix all the problems faced by students and teachers; and (B) serving technology, instead of making it serve us. For example: the lights in our classrooms are set to go off at a certain time if the motion sensors aren’t activated every 30 minutes (or whatever the time frame is). This is fine so far as it goes. But in some rooms, the lights go off constantly during class, so the teacher has to wave her arms around and roam around the room to reactivate the lights — or, if she’s too tired — just work in the dark. That’s dumb. We teachers should have easy access to the controls of the tech around us, so that we control it — instead of letting it control us.

2. Do you believe that an increase in technology is to blame for certain discipline issues our district experiences?

I think there’s an increase in discipline issues caused by a blind confidence in the pure good of technology (without recognition of the downsides), along with the general tendency of humans (and young people especially) to take the path of least resistance. In other words, people take their cell phones out when they’re bored. That’s a problem, because school is sometimes boring. When I was a bored student — back in 1472 — I would draw comics or write silly stories. The difference is that a student who is drawing can more easily engage with a class discussion. It consumes less of the student’s attention, and it’s easier to break away when necessary. Digital media are designed to be engrossing, and to bring us back constantly. The “egoboo” and social elements and user-interface (UI) components are carefully designed to keep us coming back all the time, like a chemical narcotic addiction.

Meanwhile, there are some positives to student behavior related to technology. Ten years ago, if a class got done three minutes early, the teacher had to find some way to keep the kids entertained. Otherwise, there was a chance that student goofiness could lead to some conflict or a fight or noise that could disrupt a nearby class. Now everybody just stares at their cellphones, and we have a room full of silent zombies. So in some ways, students have become much more docile and cow-like. On the other hand, I recently had to break up a conflict in the hall between two young ladies who were angry about what one of them had posted on SnapChat about the other. (One of them declared her intention — loudly — to spit on the other one, to prevent future video posts.) Students have always fought about rumors and accusations, but social media have obviously brought these problems to a new level.