David Warlick and Alan November

I’m working on the methods section of my teaching philosophy and trying to explain how and why I want to use technology in my classroom.  One thing that jumped out at me from David’s video was that the tools of technology are not big things we need to become literate in.  The skills we really need to develop are our information literacy skills.  I hadn’t realized or articulated the difference between technology and the flood of the information that comes with it.  In some ways, however, the two are impossible to separate because we develop and use technology to find, organize, process and analyze information.  

I was also listening to a news story this morning about how there are not enough computer programmers or computer engineers to fill those jobs in Seattle.  There is a computer science program and University of Washington that is really hard to get into because they haven’t increased their enrollment since 1999.  ¾ of students who have the prerequisite classes and try to get in, won’t get in.  It seems as though educational institutions all over the country and at all levels are not adapting to the needs of society fast enough.  

Society is changing but our educational system is not keeping up.  I think that some charter schools have been better than public schools at using the internet and technology in the classroom.  At City High in downtown Pittsburgh, students use laptops throughout the day.  http://cityhigh.org/about/.  Many public schools, on the other hand, are not getting students on the internet very much during the day and are still using top-town, teacher driven approach to teaching.  November reiterated what Sir Ken Robinson said – our schools are operating in an industrial model, which is not appropriate in today’s world.

In my teaching philosophy I am having a difficult time striking a balance between my desire for students to take responsibility for their learning, and being able to convince the people who are hiring me that I can manage a classroom and ensure that my students learn all of the content they are supposed to.  Our textbooks say that teacher driven instruction and a traditional curriculum seem to have the most research supporting their effectiveness, particularly in low income school districts.  I am wondering if this is because in more traditional classrooms children avoid the pitfalls of a student directed learning environment, which are similar to the pitfalls of technology that November describes—distraction, shortcuts, etc.  

Perhaps you could avoid these pitfalls if you talked about the fact that they exist, are easy to succumb to and can be avoided with self-control, practice, help from others.  Maybe we will teach children to turn off the computer and go outside after an hour, to ignore the cell phone when they get a text in the middle of a face-to-face conversation, to quiet their devices at night so they can sleep without interruption.  I hear these ridiculous stories about teenagers who are severely sleep deprived because they answer texts all night long.  http://www.7daysindubai.com/UAE-s-youths-turning-addicts/story-16063090-detail/story.html.  Maybe we are in a unique period of history where this technology has emerged and is being used heavily by youth, but education about the responsible and healthy use of this technology has not taken place yet. 

I also wonder how you protect youth from inappropriate content and dangers while giving them freedom to explore and respecting their privacy.  I think about how I’ll protect my son when he gets old enough to surf the web.  Will I make him give me all of his passwords, will I set parental controls, will I check his browsing history?  In many ways, not knowing what your kid is doing on the internet is a lot like not knowing what your kid is doing after school or on a Friday night.  I’m certainly familiar with lying to parents about whereabouts, or participating in activities they couldn’t even conceive of, so couldn’t begin to monitor.  Ultimately, I think it always comes back to building a relationship with your child where they don’t lie to you and they feel comfortable seeking your help and guidance.  There is no ethical way to control other people and have them be happy with you.