Blog #5: What’s a High School Teacher To Do?

Failure to Connect: “Learning with Computers in Elementary, Middle, and High School”

The long and the short of it:

With the doom and gloom, skull and crossbones that Healy has fomented in the first two-thirds of her book, one yearns for the light at the end of the tunnel, the anti-venom to the cobra bite, alkali to the acid– despite her heralding the danger to children posed by technology, the computer is not about to go away. And it certainly is not about to disappear from schools. Nor is there much that educators can do about what is happening in the home– students show up in class from homes that have no computer, homes where parents monitor and engage their children in positive computer experiences, and homes where the child is closer to the computer than mom or dad. Therefore the educator must implement technology appropriately in ways that are educationally profitable and justified. The bottom line: teachers should only use technology in ways that challenge students and push them to be better learners.

If/then, If/then, If/then– AAAGH!
Healy asks the question, “Can technology contribute to learning?” The answer? If. If. If. If. If. If… Then. According to Healy, in order for technology to be valid in education, kids have to be ready mentally and socially, teachers need to be ready in planning and purpose, and the technology cannot be a hollow substitute for other experiences or opportunities–including other worthy programs. That’s a tall order. For one, classes are seldom heterogeneous. A teacher gets kids at all levels, some checked in, some checked out. For an entire class to be at the point to have sufficient “cognitive skills and social development” is laughable. However, to an extent teachers can plan appropriately– maybe not to the point of Healy’s ten general principles listed later– but any instructor worth his or her salt should be able to design effective instruction whether using technology or not. Yet the Achilles’ Heel that Healy mention– that the technology “does not steal funds from more important needs” such as arts programs– is actually a matter of opinion. The debate is stymied by the fact that anyone involved in any one school program feels it is worthy of funding, from fine arts to basket weaving– including those educators that so ardently push for greater technology implementation. But the reality is, much to Healy’s chagrin, is that individual districts have, are, and will continue to invest billions in technology to the detriment of other priorities and programs. As an educator then, I am have the onus to use technology right. I am teaching a new English class for seniors this fall on non-fiction reading and writing. As a result of the Comet program, my desire is to use blogging and other web applications to augment the class. While this is still my intent, Healy’s book has given me pause and cause to ruminate on my intentions and my methods. As I move forward, I will heed Healy’s “General Principles for Meaningful Technology Use” because noone, and I mean no one, wants their kids to turn out like this.