Tips by Tony

1 | Donelle

May 12th, 2009 at 1:02 am

“It’s Not about the Technology: Great post by Kelly W. Hines, re-posted to The Edurati Review. This post should be required reading for all educators.”

Hmm. Want you to read this follow up post: http://www.eduratireview.com/2009/05/or-is-it-about-technology.html.

Had to read it twice. I’d be really curious to hear your response.

2 | Tony

May 12th, 2009 at 8:51 am

@Donelle –
I read both Ben Grey’s article and Kelly’s followup. Here’s the thing: when talking about technology and education, in many cases we’re measuring the wrong things. Students may be learning how to do effective research, how to edit their work and the work of others, how to collaborate with other students…and they may be reading far more than they otherwise would have. Yet, much of that doesn’t translate to outdated testing practices. There were a series of good articles in the past couple weeks about how high school exit exams are ineffective measurements.

Going back to Kelly’s original post, teachers must focus on teaching. Simply putting a SMART board in a classroom isn’t going to accomplish better learning or higher test scores. Learning to use the new tools in a way to enhance learning and engage the students *will*. And, for every study critics can find that technology isn’t improving test scores, I can find another that says the opposite. (Have a look at the State of Maine and their 1-to-1 laptop program – higher reading and math scores….) I’d be willing to bet that when there’s no movement at all in test scores, you’ll find technology that’s not being properly utilized. Converting old overhead slides into PowerPoint is NOT using technology for education. Not even close. Yet, for many, that’s exactly what they consider using technology in the classroom.