The effectiveness of technology use in the classroom has become a
controversial issue. While many teachers and students feel that it's
best to use technology because it enhances teaching many others feel
that it causes too many challenges and that it is a waste of time. If
technology is as effective in the classroom as many teachers believe it
to be; why do some students dislike it so much?
In order to
objectively respond to this question, 3 articles were examined. 2 out of
the 3 relate how the use of technology in the classroom frustrates
students while the last one translates the thoughts of students who feel
that technology in the classroom has responded to their need. So the
issue is not that technology is not effective but rather that some
teachers need to be mindful about technology use in the classroom and
others need to be trained in order to properly use technology to teach
so that students do not view technology as obstruction learning but as
an enhancing tool.
After summarizing the 3 articles that have been
reviewed we will be able to prove that there are 2 groups of students
who claim to dislike technology in the classroom: Those who are
improperly exposed to it by their teacher and those who did not give
themselves enough time to familiarize themselves with it. We will then
be able to get to the logical conclusion that those same students would
appreciate the value of technology in the classroom if their teachers
used it properly. Let us first summarize the articles that we are
referring to.
The article "When good technology means bad teaching
related that many students feel that teachers and professor use
technology as a way to show off. Students complain of technology making
their teachers "less effective than they would be if they stuck to a
lecture at the chalkboard" (Young) other problems related by students
include teachers wasting class time to teach about a web tool or to flab
with a projector or software. When teachers are unfamiliar with the
technological tools, they are likely to waist more time trying to use
them the technological software that is used the most according to
students is PowerPoint. Students complain that teachers use it instead
of their lesson plan. Many students explain that it makes understanding
more difficult "I call it PowerPoint abuse" (Young). Professors also
post their PowerPoint Presentation to the school board before and after
class and this encourages students to miss more classes.
Another
problem reported in the article with the use of technology in the
classrooms is that many schools spend time to train their staff about
how to use a particular technology but it does not train them on
"strategies to use them well" (Young). The writer believed that schools
should also give small monetary incentives to teachers and professors to
attend workshops.
In an interview made with 13 students, "some
gave their teacher a failing when it came to using Power Point, Course
Management systems and other classroom technology" (Young ) some of the
complains were again about the misuse of PowerPoint's and the fact that
instructors use it to recite what's on the scale. Another complaint was
that teachers who are unfamiliar with technology often waste class time
as they spend more time troubleshooting than teaching. The last complain
mentioned is that some teachers require students to comment on online
chat rooms weekly but that they do not monitor the outcome or never make
reference to the discussion in class.
Similarly, the article "I'm
not a computer person" (Lohnes 2013) speaks to the fact that students
expectations as far as technology is concerned is very different. In a
study done with 34 undergraduate university students, they advise that
technology is an integral part of a university students life because
they have to do must everything online from applying for college or
university, searching and registering for classes, pay tuition and that
in addition to being integrated in the administration, etc. technology
is also widely used to teach and is valued by higher education.
Those
students, however, feel that technology poses a barrier to success as
they struggle to align with the ways in which the institution values
technology." A student explains that technology is used in her freshman
year to turn in assignments, participate in discussion boards and blogs,
emailing the professor, viewing grades and for a wide range of other
administrative task including tracking the next school bus. This
particular student whose name is Nichole says that she does not own a
laptop but shares a family computer. She has a younger brother who also
uses the computer to complete his school work so she consequently has to
stay up late to complete assignments. She states "technology and I? We
never had that connection" (Lohnes). Nichole dislikes the fact that her
college requests that she had more contact with technology than she is
conformable with. Nonetheless, she explains that as she started doing
those school online assignments so frequently she came to realize that
they were not that bad.
One of her issues though with technology
is that she had come from Puerto Rico about a year prior entering
college and that she never had to use the computer so much there. The
articles relates that other college students like Nichole have admitted
that they are "reluctant technology users" (Lohnes) The article wants to
explain, in essence, that although most people would expect that
college students prefer technology and are already familiar with it,"
that assumption is faulty" (Lohnes).
On the other hand, the
article "What Screenagers Say About... " High school age students were
asked about what they thought of technology but most expressed liking
it. One of them said about PowerPoint: "My history teacher did a good
job with Power Points. He would put them online, which made for really
great reviews." (Screneagers, 2011) Others expressed how technology was
really who they are and that teachers should understand for example that
when they text in class, they are not being rude but that they have
gotten used to multi tasking. Another student invites teachers to not be
afraid of technology "Teachers shouldn't be afraid of technology.
Understand that it's how we live our lives. So don't just push it out.
Learn to cope with us and how we work." (Screenagers, 2011)
Another
student however, expressed how she prefers simpler technology that her
teacher is comfortable with rather than high tech that the teacher does
not manipulate well "The most important thing for teachers is to be
comfortable with what they're using. It doesn't have to be super high
tech. My math teacher used a projector, and it was one of my favorite
classes. Then I would go to this other class where the teacher used
Power Points and the SMART board, but I didn't get any more out of it
because she wasn't comfortable with the technology" (Screenagers, 2011)
Students spoke about their appreciation for virtually all types of
technology used in the classroom. Another said "One of my teachers used
Skype. That's face-to-face interaction. If I had a problem with some
math problem I was working on, I could take a picture of it and put it
on the Skype screen. She could see where I was making my mistake. It
really helped." (Screenagers, 2011) The bottom line is that those high
school students wanted to let teachers know that they really like
technology and that it is already a great part of their daily routine
but that it had to be used properly in order for them to enjoy it.
Similarly,
they summarize a few things that they dislike as well. Among the list,
they said: reading on the computer, paying a lot for an online textbook
and the fact that they often forget everything else when they get caught
up with using technology.
Nonetheless, they had much more
positive things they liked in technology like for example that some
teachers would text a question for them to think about before class, so
if they do not know they answer, they would communicate with classmates
to discuss the possibility for the answer before class. This allows them
to go to class prepared. They also like using Skype, emailing their
teachers instead of going to speak to them in person. They also enjoy
discussion boards. The advice they would like to convey to their
teachers is to make sure that they are comfortable with whatever
technological tools they are using, to give them more freedom to use the
good sites and those in the middle range when they are surfing the net
using school computers and to understand that technology is part of
their lives.
After summarizing those articles, we can see that the
students mentioned in Youngs, 2004 dislike technology because their
experience with it was not satisfactory. In other terms, a group of
students dislike technology because some teachers are not mindful about
technology use or they need additional training. For example, some
students are frustrated because they feel that instructors waist their
time when they are not properly trained to use the technological tools.
Others disliked the fact that some teachers had PowerPoint presentations
which were either not meaningful or they would just read whatever they
wrote and add no additional comments. Those examples are called "bad
teaching (Young, 2004) and they are in fact terrible examples that
teachers should not follow because technology is not meant to help
teachers do the least work or to adopt poor teaching practices. Somme
students related that PowerPoint was widely used by teachers so they
even call it PowerPoint abuse.
I can relate to what is being
expressed by those students. I observed a Teaching Assistant teach a
grammar class recently. He purchased a device to allow him to monitor
the screen without touching the computer. He was able to walk throughout
the class while changing slides. It all looked so impressive but
despite all of this show, students were left so confused at the end of
the lesson. When they asked questions, he went back to the slide that
had the grammar rule and read it over to the class. The PowerPoint was a
duplication of the textbook chapter. The same examples of the book were
used. At the end of the course, he felt that he had done a great
PowerPoint when in fact, it was not meaningful. It was a copy/paste
project from the text book to the screen. This example shows that we
need to use common sense when using technology. When teaching grammar, a
teacher has to be able to come up with examples other than those in the
book, you have to write on the board, have student practice what they
have learned. PowerPoint use was a real bad idea, in my opinion, for
teaching this course. It was just not the right technological tool for
the lesson.
Students in that class may decide that they hate Power
Points because it confuses them more while the issue is not with the
use of PowerPoint but instead with the teacher's poor choice of
technology. The point I also want to make here is that teachers may
sometimes be unaware of their improper use of technology. This is why,
as educators, we sometimes need to ask students for their feedback so we
may make corrections where needed.
We can then conclude that
those students dislike technology as a result of improper technological
use by teachers, and also because many teachers do not attend workshops
or training sessions to help them obtain a broader knowledge of
technology since they are so busy. Like suggest (Youngs, 2004) and
(Lohnes, 2012), those same busy teachers would have attended those
trainings if there were given an incentive. In the article "Technology
Standards in a Third-Grade Classroom" (Kovalik, 2001), it is related how
a study done on a 3rd grade class of 25 showed that students were
properly using technology. There is no indication that those students
dislike using technology. The article also mentioned how the teachers
were highly trained because the Ohio board pays incentive to teachers to
participate in technology training which teaching them not only how to
use technology by teaches them strategies on when to use them.
Boards
from other states should consider doing the same thing to ensure that
their teachers are responding to the technological need of their
students and that they are teaching them according to the standards. The
Ohio school mentioned above met the standards as far as technology is
concerned because of the technology coaching received by the teachers.
If teachers learn how to properly use technology in the classroom, it
will be a less frustrating experience for them and for the student who
will less likely dislike technology since it will meet its purpose to
enhance teaching.
The other groups of students who dislike
technology are those who were not exposed to it for long enough. The
College Freshman, Nichole advises that she was not exposed to so much
technology while she was in high school in her home country;
consequently, it seemed to be a burden to her to have to need a computer
to complete most of her school assignments but also to interact with
her classmate via a discussion board. What is interesting though is that
even though she claimed to dislike technology so much, she advised that
once she started to spend so much time using it, she realizes that it
is not so bad. Even though it is likely that some people do not like the
telephone and texting so much, the computer and some website have
become part of most people daily routine. In Nichole's case, she does
not own a laptop and has to wait for her turn to use the family computer
which means that she has no attachment to this media because her use of
it is controlled. However, once she gets to own her own computer, it is
a guaranteed that her view of technology will change.
I returned
to school after about 12 years. When I was in college the 1st time
around, nothing was electronic but when I contacted USF to apply, they
told me that everything was online. At first, I asked why everything was
online but once I got used to it, I started to understand the value of
having the convenience to do a lot of things without having to live my
home.
Therefore, Nichole will certainly not continue to dislike
technology that much once she gets more familiar and more attached to
it. The fact is that she stated that she started to realize that it was
not that bad once she started doing so many assignments. She came to the
conclusion that the computer was not yet a friend but that it was no
longer an enemy; it became to her an acquaintance.
With this
understanding, depending on the background of some ELL students and
depending on whether or not they were exposed to technology in their
home country, they may not like technology at first but this should not
be a sign that they will never come to appreciated it. As teacher, we
will need to allow them time to familiarize themselves with it while we
continue to properly use it so that we do not advocate against it or
involuntary send missed information about its true value.
On the
other hand, the last article testifies to the fact that the new
generation is technology driven and that when used properly, they
benefits from it in the classroom, there are several examples of how
teachers originally used technology to teach which are appreciated by
students. What should the conclusion be then?
We have proven that
technology use is effective in the classroom but that teachers need to
take some actions in order to make this tool useful to students. It is
necessary that they received some training if they lack it, and like a
student suggested in the Screenager article, they should refrain from
using complicated tools if they are not sure about how to use them. It's
best to properly use something much simpler that they are familiar with
like a high school student suggested.
In addition, it is
important for teachers to screen the countless technological tools and
to research them before introducing them to their teaching. Should they
test some that do not work well, they have to stop using them and seek
one that is more appropriate. Most importantly, technology is not always
the answer this is why teachers should be balanced when using it. If it
is required that we use the board and chalks to help students better
understand, this is what we should do. Doing so, we will ensure that
more students appreciate the use of technology in the classroom for what
it is worth.
Work Cited
Kovalik, Cindy, Lynn Smolen, and Jazmine Toddy. "Technology Standards In A Third-Grade Classroom."
Journal Of Research On Computing In Education 33.5 (2001): 1-17. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 9 Aug. 2013
Lohnes Watulak, Sarah. "'I'm Not a Computer Person': Negotiating Participation in Academic
Discourses." British Journal Of Educational Technology 43.1(2012):109-118. OmniFile Full Text
Mega (H.W.Wilson). Web.9Aug. 2013.
Young, Jeffrey R. "When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching" Chronicle Of Higher Education
51.12(2004): A31-A31. Academic Search Premier. Web.9Aug.2013.
What Screenagers Say About... (2011). Educational Leadership, 68(5), 44-46 Wed. 9 Aug.2013.
By
NICK MYRCA MALEBRANCHE- GAUTHIER
