Can You Be a Good Teacher Without Technology?
Doug Woods’ recent post (“Good Teachers Don’t Need Technology“) reminds me of a question that I invariably get at the beginning of each semester from students who are thinking of entering the teaching profession: “Can you be a good teacher without using technology?”
I suspect this question is motivated from a combination of idealism and fear–the traditional ideal of having a group of eager students hanging on my every word as I create magic on the chalkboard and fear that, when technology is part of the instructional mix, my students might know more than I do and I’ll lose control.
As a long-time K-12 (and now K-20) teacher, I am well aware of the “reform-o’-the-day” trap into which educators can so easily be lured. Remember the System 80? How about Language Masters? Whole Language? Distar? For some, it’s easy to lump information technology into the same category of devices or methods that will go away if we just wait long enough.
But information technology is fundamentally different than other “educational” reforms precisely because it did not originate from school. The Language Master didn’t change the way we communicated. Whole Language didn’t redefine workplace roles or break down cultural and national barriers. The growth of technology–industrial, information, genetic, and those yet unimagined–created and continues to create fundamental social, political and economic change.
Through some combination of tradition, inertia, political will, funding, and lack of vision, schools still struggle with the effective use of technology and the modes of teaching and learning that technology provides. That’s why I invariably get the same question from my post-secondary students each semester: “Can you be a good teacher without technology?”
I never know exactly how to answer that. Part of me would answer, “Of course you can. As long as you understand your students’ individual needs, honestly respect them, and keep them meaningfully engaged in relevant tasks, it doesn’t matter what tools you use. Your students will make progress.” But another part of me sees all of the potential pitfalls of that argument. You may be the most empathetic, caring teacher in the known universe, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to develop, prescribe, and assess instruction for every individual student or that you’ll find ways to engage students in meaningful learning opportunities without access to the tools that can make these activities possible. Can you be a great teacher simply by the force of your personality and dedication, or, given the way that most of our K-12 students have developed their learning habits and preferences through connected technologies, does being a great teacher require that you adapt to the reality of what the students are bringing to your classroom?
I want to say that it doesn’t matter, that you can be a great teacher without using a single scrap of technology, but the reality of dealing with today’s learners and the increasingly connected world in which they live makes me think that you can’t be effective without understanding and creatively employing technology tools.
What do you think?
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