The Tech Revolution in the Classroom

May 2, 2011

On November 9, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan addressed the annual forum of the State Educational
Technology Directors Association to announce the Department of
Education’s National Te chnology Plan. Duncan opened his remarks saying,
“Our nation’s schools have yet to unleash technology’s full potential to
transform learning. We’re at an important transition point. We’re
getting ready to move from a predominantly print-based classroom to a
digital learning environment. We need to leverage technology’s promise
to improve learning.” Indeed, technological advances over the last two
decades have seemed exponential relative to the rest of educational
history in the United States. When Duncan speaks of transformation, he
hits at the heart of the matter—educators

What Duncan was referring to in his speech is not
technology that simply streamlines existing process but technology that
creates entirely new learning processes. For example, blogging
technology can transform the feedback process related to writing
assignments; blog comment features open avenues for feedback from
teacher and other students, multiplying the learning process across many
channels and altering the traditional single feedback loop between a
teacher and one student.

While some new technologies, like Smart Boards, are
wonderful and extremely helpful to teachers, the switch to digital
technology over the last decade creates possibilities for entirely new
processes of learning in the classroom, and increased mobility expands
possibilities for learning to places outside the walls of the
traditional classroom. Wireless networking and cloud computing are the
main technologies driving the latter, while the former is being affected
by three main innovations that come, not surprisingly, from three of
the largest tech companies in the world.

Michael Brindley of The Nashua Telegraph (New
Hampshire) recently reported on a high school teacher using innovative
techniques in his class—Nick Audley integrated cell phones into his
curriculum using a service called Poll Everywhere. Students text
responses to questions with the results calculated and displayed in real
time on a screen. The article also describes a classroom in a different
district where the teacher receives immediate data on students’ quiz
responses on an iPad.

Traditional models of teaching and learning include a
much longer feedback process that often leaves struggling students
behind. A teacher would not have assessment results until long after a
lesson, at which time re-teaching becomes a major disruption. With the
immediate feedback made possible by wireless devices in the classroom, a
teacher can determine which concepts need more attention and which have
been mastered by students. This more immediate feedback would have been
impossible without wireless technology, and as Brindley’s article
noted, “It’s foolish to ignore the fact that most students are walking
around with small computers in their pockets.”

Cloud computing has become another major player in
the switch to the 21st century classroom. For students, the cloud
provides a central location for the storage of digital work that can be
accessed from any web-enabled device. Not only can a student’s work
follow her from device to device (eliminating the age old excuse of “I
left my assignment at school”), the centralized organization of the
cloud facilitates the storage of students’ work across grade levels.
With existing, free technology, a high school senior can graduate with
access to every digital assignment since kindergarten.

An additional benefit to cloud computing is the
leveling of the playing field for s tudents who previously did not have
access to technology. Google’s suite of applications, particularly Docs,
is free and mobile. For students who do not own Microsoft Word, or
maybe even a computer, Google Docs gives teachers multiple options for
providing a way for them to write. Cloud applications like Google Docs
also aid in collaborative learning. Students can access the same files
from different places and work together to complete assignments.

Google recently made a big move into the educational
marketplace by opening an app store specifically for education-related
apps, such as learning management systems and web-based grade books. The
Orange school district near Cleveland, OH is waiting for board approval
to adopt Google’s Apps for Education, a move that could save more than
$150,000 for the district while moving staff members’ calendars, email,
documents, and class web sites to the cloud. Google’s education apps
shift responsibility for the infrastructure to Google, saving money on
local tech support. Many of the apps are free, and increased mobility
for teachers is as appealing an idea as it is for students.

One device that complements cloud computing and that
has become a hot item among educators is Apple’s iPad. The iPad’s
appeal to educators has more to do with the apps it can run, but the
device itself is intuitive and fun to use. The Boston Globe reports
that Burlington High School in Massachusetts will be supplying students
with iPads. The article cites an English teacher who supports the
program: “The world has changed and schools have not kept up with the
rate of change. I think this is a fairly significant step in trying to
reclaim some of that ground.”The iPad gives students more communication
tools and offers educators a way to prese nt content in more dynamic
formats.

IPads also are having an impact on special needs
students. While Apple did not explicitly intend the iPad as an assistive
device, its capabilities allow children, particularly those with
autism, to communicate in ways that are more comfortable. Some autistic
children have sensitivity to touch—the iPad’s touch screen technology
feels more comfortable because it incorporates the hands rather than a
pencil or pen. Many developers have released apps specific to autistic
children, apps that help them learn how to navigate social situations.

Finally, the biggest shift on the horizon for
education comes in the form of e-readers, of which Amazon’s Kindle has a
clear lead in the marketplace. Schools have not been quick to adopt the
Kindle, but the implications are enormous. If students could carry all
of their books on one device, teachers could more easily structure
cross-curricular learning. The Kindle provides for marking passages and
taking notes, and the digital nature of the device indexes this
information more efficiently than a regular notebook. The Kindle also
allows users to share notes and highlights, so students could begin to
learn from one another as their observations on texts are noted and
shared via wireless networks.

Ultimately, the importance of technology lies
not in how it can transform the learning process, though the
possibilities are vast and exciting. The reality is that new
technologies— wireless networks, the cloud, social networking, and
innovative devices—are already mainstays in everyday life, particularly
for students. Schools can serve these students best by creating a world
inside the classroom that looks like their world outside the classro om,
an attribute Arne Duncan noted in his speech: “The ultimate goal for our
investment in technology – and all of our programs – is for students to
be prepared to succeed in college and careers.”