Integrating technology in the classroom may be a solution but it is also the problem.
A few days ago, I was in a classroom supporting a group. Nothing was actually happening as the teacher was dithering about some activity. I took the opportunity to write some thoughts I have been having about how technology is used in the classroom, how it can be a disaster if not structured and how the fundamental idea behind the computer room is flawed.
There is a real risk of having a disastrous lesson in a computer room. I know this for myself after one memorable observation when I had planned lots of activities for the students to do, yet one student still saw fit to try and sell some DVDs to a classmate opposite. In other lessons in the computer rooms, it became a real problem trying to prise students away from the screen. There have been situations where students become really angry if they are badgered to get off the computer and it has led me to worry about how much time the education system devotes to having students simply sit in front of a screen. Many students spend a lot of time welded to their phones, and of course at home there’s the screen-based activities of the internet, the TV and games consoles.
Having observed many lessons, I have sat with a sort of rising dread as another worksheet gets handed out for the students to carry out. The task is a means to an end, an opportunity to extract something from the assessment criteria out of the students. There have been times when no actual learning has taken place because there is a systemic failure to spend time developing life skills the students really need. That failure allows students to build up bad habits, producing work of variable quality and in some cases, turning class work into solitary exercises.
Scary offices
Let’s take research as an example. I commented on twitter on the Wikipedia blackout day that students across the globe would be unable to copy and paste their college work for the day. It was meant in jest, but there is a deeper truth to the way that students are not challenged enough in how they rip off other people’s work and claim it is their own. Even worse is that it often does not cross their mind to realise they are cheating, not learning and wasting precious time.
Research techniques are not embedded enough across the curriculum in colleges, from my experience. Often, students have found the idea of referencing work odd or long-winded and it can be an uphill battle to get the discipline of crediting people where credit’s due.
In my teaching, I have done what I could to stem the flow of Wikipedia entries coming to me dressed as work. It would partially explain my constant look of terror as I approached the marking box. I familiarise myself with key Wikipedia entries and I have made a habit of copying phrases into google to search for the string of words. I would withhold marks for work I was not confident about and I would go as far as finding the source material and stapling it to work with no further comments.
There seems to be an idea that plonking students in front of a screen and getting them to get work done is ok, but it takes a great deal of skills to manage the situation successfully. Time-constrained targets often work well, with feedback at the end of the task. However, the students need to think the work they have been asked to do is worthwhile; consider the distractions available online and then think about the priorities for the students. Will the work be more interesting than an addictive computer game, a facebook chat or youtube videos of keyboard cat in a Hitler parody? Even in the colleges with blocking software, it is inevitable that someone will find a way to get through the filters!
I was once shown software by a library assistant that showed what each student was looking at one the internet in the computer cluster. At the time I was a bit concerned by it, but as time has passed I have become even more averse to this sort of surveillance. It allows the teacher to keep control but that comes at the risk of student autonomy, which I don’t think is a good precedent to set. I would much rather set out expectations with eventual sanctions rather than a system that explicitly shows a lack of trust in the student.
If Kim Jong-Un likes computer rooms, should we abandon them?
I am consciously trying to balance an argument for computer rooms, but my mindset at the moment is that the computer room is all too often a cop out for actual teaching. As someone who probably has some form of Attention Deficit Disorder, I find classes based primarily around computers really boring; and I know how I react to boredom is to lose motivation to do work. I stop seeing the reason for working, and allow distraction to take over unless I am challenged. I fear this is something students can appreciate all too well and ineffective timetabling can mean some students spend a large proportion of their college time in computer rooms.
There are certainly ways to resolve these issues, and I’m sure that many teachers manage computer rooms brilliantly, so this post is more an observation on what I’ve witnessed and my problems with the concept of computer rooms.
Yes. What can I say? I’ve been in those lessons. And finally things are set to change – at least with regards to ICT… though not necessarily for the better. Interesting post.
I don’t think I put forward much of an argument for how to make these lessons better…the room layout is of course a major issue, and the “plonk them down” culture is of course a nightmare. I’m not sure the new ideas are much; if it’s a flagship Government idea, I think we can expect to see it get dismantled and ripped apart by pretty much everyone in the country. Though Gove seems strikingly lucky compared to Lansley and IDS.
Interesting post. I substitute taught in the States for about two years and had many similar experiences in seeing students becoming distracted/very upset when they were told to stop using the computers. But I’ve also had some incredible experiences watching students engaged and truly reflexive of the processes of learning in their VLEs. What I noticed over time was that the positive learning experiences always seemed to involve a very specific, focused task that somehow included making the processes of what was being learned very transparent from the get-go. That is to say, the students were asked to reflect not just on the content of what they learned, but also on the technological aspects of how they learned it on the computer in general. It was fascinating to see and hear how much more these students enjoyed those lessons verus the less focused, somewhat task-less lessons. So, I agree with you that we must be very cautious of how we incorporate technology into schools — but I also think this can be achieved with stunning results if both educators and students are (at least sufficiently) technologically and media literate.
Only this morning I was re-reading David Buckingham’s article on Web 2.0 and so many points came up and conflicted with other points. Media in the classroom has such enormous potential but I’ve seen it really messed up so much that it has the ability to fall apart too easily.
However, when I taught a script-writing unit on a BTEC last year, some of the results were wonderful and the students were very focused in writing their script. It is a balancing act and I think that the “chalk and talk” approach to teaching can be draining for all involved.
I loved using the Moodle VLE, but it’s still in many ways a depository for work and not a two-way exchange of information/work between teacher and students.
Thank you for an insightful blog entry on computers in learning. As a teacher educator in a small university college in southern Norway I do have many of the same experiences on computers and learning. I don’t teach students in computer rooms, but the same happen whether I’m teaching in small classrooms or larger lecture halls: There are always a group of students back in the room fixed to their laptop screen all through my lecture. One might think that they use the computer to take notes on what I’m talking about in my lecture, but in most cases I fear not! Many do take notes, and they do prefer to do so as they are not used to take notes with pen and paper anymore (that’s another topic to follow …). However, many students multitask: They listen to my lecture, and use their laptop to take some notes, checking Facebook, reading the news etc. For many the multitasking doesn’t add up: To much time on other matters on the computer than the subject matter of my lecture make them waste their time in my opinion.
I don’t demand total obedience and attention, but when it comes to some students I feel like I’m talking to a wall! As a lecturer I need feedback and I want to engage the students in discussions as part of the teaching session. That’s difficult when many students have 95 % of their attention elsewhere. Many of the other students that don’t take their laptop to the lecture also get feed up by these multitasking laptop users. They find it disturbing as most of the attention in the back of the lecture hall is drawn to the laptops and whatever is happening on the computer screens. A ban on computers in classrooms and lecture halls might be the solution, but to take away computers might not increase ICT skills among students. Maybe we must reflect more on when computers should be used and when they are no good in teaching.
One of the ICT related skills that is very important, in my option, is for the students to understand how to work with source materials, whether they are available online or not. It’s so easy for students nowadays to copy and paste from sources on the web such as Wikipedia. Many students don’t understand that copying and pasting is, at best, unintentional fraud. We have an introduction course on this for our teacher students, but for many students learning this takes too much time and effort. Open sources on the web, Wikipedia in particular, are so easy accessible and are therefore much in use when students write their reports. However, students must be urged to use other and often more relevant and concise sources. If teaching still has to do something about proper knowledge, teacher students must learn how and where to find such knowledge.
Hello,
Thanks for your comment!
I like your point about wanting feedback from the students. It’s not in my nature to enjoy talking if there’s no response. I think a good teacher would sense the mood in the room and want to do something about it, but when faced with this in a computer room, it can be really miserable. The battle between a teacher who has something relevant to say against a barrage of facebook updates/general surfing is never good. I don’t think the students would gain much from it either…sometimes in the college I am at, I realise students turn up because they have to. They don’t want to engage in the subjects and I’ve seen a few teachers stop trying to get them to engage, in case they get attitude or rude comments back. I’m not criticising, I can see how hard it is to get them interested in anything.
Wikipedia. Nightmare. As I’m not teaching at the moment, I haven’t had a chance to use the plagiarism software available like Turn It In, but I will take that opportunity next time I can! I think stamping out plagiarism is really important to me; I’d rather a clumsily structured argument that can be refined than a pasted article from someone else any day!
Yes, it’s true: Many students turn up because they have to, not because they want to. I think that many students lack a real interest for what they are studying and their future occupation (or they are hiding it very well …). Many students here in Norway have a spare time job beside their fulltime study schedule, so many seem to prioritize down the time they spend studying. I suggest that many of today’s students are minimalistic in their approach to their studies. To quote myself: “a typical minimalistic student will do exactly what is needed in his/hers studies but not more, will be on campus only when it is strictly necessary and will have a relaxed relationship to his/hers own achievements in his/hers studies” (see my article on http://www.atee1.org/uploads/atee2010_proceedings_final.pdf). If that’s true (and my research suggests this), what can higher education institutions do? It seems to me that we have to change the way we teach students and organize higher education. Recent research has indicated that only around 20 % of the students really understand the lectures that they are attending! That’s what I call a challenge: To engage students who don’t have the time to be on campus, who copy and paste from Wikipedia, and who doesn’t understand what you’re trying to teach them!