Digitizing the Status Quo

Mark Gura Walking the very extensive vendor floor at this past Junes NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) I was struck by the undeniable confirmation of a disturbing trend that has been asserting itself for some time. Instructional Technology has been hacked! Like the very technology it relies on, my field has been infected by the viruses, Trojan horses, and pernicious worms of institutionalized mediocrity. One wouldnt draw this conclusion from the workshops, panels, papers, or poster sessions presented at NECC. There, inspired educators still represent an intoxicating antidote to the stultifying way that the business of traditional education is done in our schools. Many of these sessions offered glimpses into an alternate reality in which teaching and learning are fueled with excitement, wonder, and magic. It was heartening to see that the movement to harness the awesome power of technology to ignite young imaginations and offer a brand of education in sync with the digital generation is flourishing, at least in the fertile minds of some educators. On the sales floor though, something else is afoot. Those short answer quizzes that we educators have long since ceased to value? There back! But now they run on PDAs and have a data engine to help teacher figure quickly how her class faired. No need to rely on traditional chalkboards to support teacher-centered lecture-style lessons, now, we have virtual white boards to establish a superficial 21st Century corollary for pre-twentieth century instructional methodology. It isnt simply this simple minding me too, weve got a digital version for every hackneyed outmoded public school ritual, that sets my teeth on edge. Rather, its a sense of loss. That we had something so special within our grasp and now it has been co-opted by the forces that fight for the status quo. We hardly got a running start on digitally re-defining the spirit and methodology of education for the new millennium through the infusion of technology, and powerful forces have commandeered our movement, cheapeining it and robbing it of its core mission. Eclipsing technology that is put at the service of those elusive magical ah ha teachable moments of pure inspiration, one sees purveyed instead

Student Information Systems, sophisticated software to handle all your vital records: attendance, test data, programs, etc. Great! But the Harry Potter generation craves the wizardry of instructional content delivered by Java, Flash, and Virtual Reality. In conversation after conversation, sales reps enthusiastically demonstrate how technology supports educators in making data driven decisions, issuing youngsters bar coded ID cards, automating calls home to parents to inform them of their offsprings tardiness. They show endless varieties of software to help with that onerous NCLB compliance bugaboo. Meanwhile, our youngsters are smuggling game boys, video enabled cell phones, pocket GPS units and DVD players into class in their backpacks. Technology to support the administrative functions running schools is winning an increasing amount of attention and available dollars. Unfortantely though, in addition to the intended advantages that these resources offer educators, they just may be compromising the greater of putting technology at the service of education. We are just now at the point where a good many of our decision makers are beginning to notice technology for education in ernest. What a pity it would be if the majority conclusion was that once you have your SIS in place, have moved to online purchasing, and have provided district personnel with email and information through a district website, that youve done technology! Nothing could be further from the truth. The administrative aspects of technology for school administration represent just a tiny fraction of technologys potential to positively transform education. Its scary to think that the powerful uninitiated will settle for an easy to swallow appetizer without checking out the menu of main courses and deserts. Upstairs in the meeting rooms, my colleagues were sharing the remarkable work they had done using technology to: And to be fair about it, back down on the sales floor there were companies selling: Paradigms do not die hard.