PLN Reflection 1: Debating Technology in the Classroom

As I have begun forming my PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter, I’ve been looking especially for those people concerned with either “Technology in the Classroom” or “Urban Education” (or both) to follow. I’ve run across a particularly busy Tweeter, Steven W Anderson, who identifies his profile name as Web20Classroom. As you can imagine, he primarily posts on ways to bring technology and social media into the classroom. For instance, one of his Tweets focused on using online, customizable and interactive textbooks.

One of his posts from today is a link to an article entitled “The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education” by Patricia Deubel.

The article is an interesting one for me to consider these days as this blog is primarily concerned with honing my use of technology in the classroom and my experiences with it. It has caught my attention in fact, because it asks several questions about what exactly using technology in education means. The problems around this “debate” (how effective technology in the classroom actually is), she suggests, are the undefined contexts of it—what exactly do we mean by “technology” and “education”? These terms have broad ranging contexts. How to begin answering to how effective technology in education is in this light is quite hard to do.

Many believe that bringing technology into the classroom is a “Faustian deal” (Faust sells his soul to the devil for earthly reward). In other words, they believe we are selling out real education for something “more fun” for kids. While this is an interesting stance, as Deubel points out, the 21st century is only going to find increasing reliance on technology outside of school. Those better prepared in schools to handle and adapt to it, are going to be better off in “the real world.” In fact, there may come a time, sooner than later, of such great dependence on advanced technology that considering not to engage it would be like deciding not to eat.

Anyway, these are just a few interesting ways of thinking about this “debate.” You can find the full article here: http://thejournal.com/Articles/2007/11/08/The-Great-Debate-Effectiveness-of-Technology-in-Education.aspx?Page=2