Technology is a Tool, not a Class

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

King Whitney Jr.

A few years ago, a big wig in my school district came up with an interesting slogan. The slogan was “Special Education is a service, not a place.” What he was trying to emphasize was that the special education area in our district was something to be thought of a place where students and teachers can get help with specific needs, and not thought of as a place where you shuffle off kids that have difficulty in classes. A service, not a place.

That saying had left my mind until recently, when discussing the technology standards that Texas requires kids to know. A teacher stated in a meeting that technology won’t be taught until it was tested on the state-mandated test. Hmm. Why isn’t it tested? Well, I thought about it, and then said back to her “We don’t test kids on how to use a pencil do we?” No, because the pencil is a tool. Like a book. We don’t test kids on how to USE a book. We might test them on what they learned from the book, but we don’t ask what the steps are to opening a book, turning the pages, or using the table of contents. We just assume a child has a certain level of understanding in the use of the tool; the book.

So it is with technology. The State of Texas does not test our students on technology, because technology is a tool used to learn. They also do not test our students on how to open books, use a ball point pen, or how to use the library. Tools one and all, and none are tested.

No one asks whether or not pencils raise test scores. That is because pencils are commonplace. They are ubiquitous. It is assumed that the pencil helps students improve test scores. Same with books. The book is just there. Students use the books. Students learn from the books.

Technology is not so common. We still lock up the laptops, we still pretty much only allow the teacher to use the LCD projector, and sadly, we still limit kids to the technology lab when we want them to access information on the net. Education technology is still expensive, it is still not common everywhere, despite billions and billions of dollars spent getting it into every school and almost every class in the US. Technology is still a class and not yet a tool.

So how does one go about changing a mindset that many teachers and even administrators may have about education technology? Like any tool, no one will use it unless a benefit is seen and experienced. Can this tool make life easier? Make boring less boring? Can this tool improve student learning, and probably the most common thought these days, will it increase test scores?

Yes to all of these things is the correct answer. Proving that to teachers is another difficulty, because, unlike that damn pencil, technology isn’t everywhere and unlike the pencil, technology still intimidates. And kids that know more about technology than the teacher intimidates even more.

So the mind shift has to be made, somehow, that technology is a tool, not a class, or a course, or a reward, or something to be avoided. One way is to get technology into the hands of all users, and make sure that they use it. That involves a money commitment not only to purchase, but to support, and train. Pencils don’t need much support other than a sharpener. The reason is already there, the law, in the form of the TEKS, is there, and in many cases the technology is there. We have to show the benefits, we have to prove that technology makes life easier, makes for smarter learners, and raises the darn test scores.

The trick is getting the teachers to make the kids drop the pencils and pick up the keyboard, the remotes, the mice and the cameras.

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Comment by Tim Holt on May 30, 2007 at 9:38pm: I agree to a point, but...
Even the best teachers from my experience still look at technology as a class, not a tool.
The good teachers see it as a class. the bad teachers see it as a class to baby sit the kids.
Either way, very few lok at technology as a tool.
That is why we devised those ads, some of which I posted, in the video area.

Comment by Elizabeth Davis on May 31, 2007 at 12:04pm: Tim I so agree with you. I have been teaching "computer class" to 7th and 8th graders for the last three years. This spring, I finally went to my principal and said no way no more. Technology is a tool, we don't teach calculator class. If it isn't grounded in curriculum content, then it is a waste of time. Making up lessons to use technology tools is inorganic - the kids know it and don't respect it and it wastes the time I could otherwise spend working with teachers to help them integrate technology into their work. Thankfully he finally heard me and next year I will not be teaching "computer class." Yay!