My Wall Street Journal Article Answering: Does Technology Belong in Classroom Instruction?

The Wall Street Journal approached me to write an article sharing my views on whether technology belonged in the classroom. I was surprised anyone was still having this conversation, but like the technology-banning professor Clay Shirky, there are others, who don't see the power of technology beyond a device of consumption. They still view school time as a place for stand and deliver instruction where students need to be told how to learn and think critically and they can only do that with humans who are physically present. 

Of course, innovative educators have a different view of learning. We know that technology can be used as a tool to engage students with a global network experts and others who share their passions and interests. We understand that technology lets us go beyond handing work in and on to publishing it.  

Please check out both sides of the article in The Wall Street Journal at this link and comment there and here with your views on the topic.

I can't wait to discuss.

Visit this link to share your thoughts and comment on the article.

Don't Follow the Lead of @cshirky in Banning Technology

Clay Shirky author and professor of media studies at New York University, recently penned a guest article for the Washington Post sharing why he decided to ban technology in his class.  He explains how it was challenging to be more interesting than the devices. The following quote captures some of his thinking:  

“The practical effects of my decision to allow technology use in class grew worse over time. The level of distraction in my classes seemed to grow, even though it was the same professor and largely the same set of topics, taught to a group of students selected using roughly the same criteria every year. The change seemed to correlate more with the rising ubiquity and utility of the devices themselves, rather than any change in me, the students, or the rest of the classroom encounter.”

While banning might be a good idea for the “sit, listen, discuss, repeat” style of teaching, for the rest of us, not so much.  The disengaged classroom Shirky describes brings to mind the scene from the 1985 comedy “Real Genius” where eventually most every desk had a tape recorder and eventually the professor also gives in and replaces himself with a reel to reel to deliver his lecture.