Monday, August 29, 2005
The Model Classroom
Model Classrooms are a geek's dream -- a 40-inch interactive computer screen called a Smartboard, a Jeopardy!-like classroom quiz-by-remote-control system called CPS, and various other gadgets designed to make learning fun and engaging. They're the future of classroom instruction, and to get one, you have to apply for one with our technology office. The application is a questionnaire designed to test one's commitment to the use of technology in instruction. Because I found some of the questions -- and my answers -- interesting, I'm posting a few here.
Would you give this man a Model Classroom?
(Questions in bold; my answers in normal text beneath each.)
5. How do you think these instructional technology tools would effect student achievement? (300-word limit)
A great inhibitor of student participation -- their unwillingness to take risks in speaking a foreign language -- would be obviated by the CPS system, leading to greater participation from the students and better feedback on comprehension, by which I would be better able to tailor lessons, practice, and assessment to enhance student learning. Audio-visual presentation of vocabulary using the Smartboard would enhance comprehension, retention, and ability to apply the vocabulary in context. The ability to use technology to enhance their presentations of dialogues and research projects would lead to greater student involvement in these activities. I have seen similar effects in the classes of other teachers and have no reason to doubt they would emerge in mine as well. On this matter, I have no doubt: student enthusiasm for the class, investment in its activities, and willingness to participate would all be greatly enhanced by the Model Classroom technology, and their achievements would be commensurately higher.
6. How do you perceive the role of technology in the future of education? (300-word limit)
Technology will solve many of the problems we face in education, but will raise many of its own, and it is important to keep a clear and unromantic perspective on this matter, for our own sakes and those of the students. Two enormous problems that face the full implementation of technology -- paperless classrooms, true remote learning, etc. -- are money and technological development itself. In terms of technological development, the fulfillment of technology's many promises will require the invention, production, and implementation of not only a faster and more reliable Internet, but also -- at the classroom level -- the availability of affordable student interface devices (laptops, etc.) that are tough enough to withstand the school environment. (I suspect that technological obsolescence -- the dreaded "it was a paperweight the minute we bought it" problem -- will not be a great impediment to educational technology. Barring the development of some sort of Star Trek three-dimensional holographic display system, there is only so much that needs to be done with text and images, and our current technology is adequate for most of it.) The greater problem is money -- engineers and developers can overcome any technical obstacle, but the willingness of society to foot the bill will assuredly be more erratic and inconsistent.
Another problem is that of diminishing returns. In the short term, student involvement in learning, and their enthusiasm for school, will be enhanced by the availability of new technologies such as the Internet; the relative novelty of such technologies, compared to the archaic book, pencil, and chalkboard, will for a time ensure that students are attentive and invested in their classes. However, in time -- and likely in a very short time indeed -- the novelty will wear off, and we will find that students who only recently were enthralled by technologies such as those found in the Model Classroom now find them routine, workaday, and boring, in and of themselves. It will again fall to teachers, as it always has, to find new ways to engage students in learning without being able to rely on the "wow-factor" of technology to do their work for them.
Technology will always find its best application in the presence of dedicated and knowledgeable teachers who can act as guides, encouragers, and -- when necessary -- filters for students who have more access to more information (some of it unreliable) than any generation that has gone before.
7. Please add anything else you think we need to know to make our decision. (300-word limit)
During prior availabilities of the Model Classroom, I did not apply for one because I felt that the limited quantities of the technology militated against its use in a non-core academic class such as Spanish; I believed Model Classrooms would find better and more productive use in math, reading, social studies, and science classrooms. With the advent of our two-year program for high school credit, however, I believe the situation has changed drastically. I am now responsible for teaching one of a handful of middle-school classes for which student performance will be scrutinized not only during middle and high school, but for the process of college admissions. It is not an overstatement to say that my class will affect the rest of my students' lives. I believe that my students and I will succeed in this new challenge, and I believe the Model Classroom will be a vital component in that success.
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Would you give this man a Model Classroom?
(Questions in bold; my answers in normal text beneath each.)
5. How do you think these instructional technology tools would effect student achievement? (300-word limit)
A great inhibitor of student participation -- their unwillingness to take risks in speaking a foreign language -- would be obviated by the CPS system, leading to greater participation from the students and better feedback on comprehension, by which I would be better able to tailor lessons, practice, and assessment to enhance student learning. Audio-visual presentation of vocabulary using the Smartboard would enhance comprehension, retention, and ability to apply the vocabulary in context. The ability to use technology to enhance their presentations of dialogues and research projects would lead to greater student involvement in these activities. I have seen similar effects in the classes of other teachers and have no reason to doubt they would emerge in mine as well. On this matter, I have no doubt: student enthusiasm for the class, investment in its activities, and willingness to participate would all be greatly enhanced by the Model Classroom technology, and their achievements would be commensurately higher.
6. How do you perceive the role of technology in the future of education? (300-word limit)
Technology will solve many of the problems we face in education, but will raise many of its own, and it is important to keep a clear and unromantic perspective on this matter, for our own sakes and those of the students. Two enormous problems that face the full implementation of technology -- paperless classrooms, true remote learning, etc. -- are money and technological development itself. In terms of technological development, the fulfillment of technology's many promises will require the invention, production, and implementation of not only a faster and more reliable Internet, but also -- at the classroom level -- the availability of affordable student interface devices (laptops, etc.) that are tough enough to withstand the school environment. (I suspect that technological obsolescence -- the dreaded "it was a paperweight the minute we bought it" problem -- will not be a great impediment to educational technology. Barring the development of some sort of Star Trek three-dimensional holographic display system, there is only so much that needs to be done with text and images, and our current technology is adequate for most of it.) The greater problem is money -- engineers and developers can overcome any technical obstacle, but the willingness of society to foot the bill will assuredly be more erratic and inconsistent.
Another problem is that of diminishing returns. In the short term, student involvement in learning, and their enthusiasm for school, will be enhanced by the availability of new technologies such as the Internet; the relative novelty of such technologies, compared to the archaic book, pencil, and chalkboard, will for a time ensure that students are attentive and invested in their classes. However, in time -- and likely in a very short time indeed -- the novelty will wear off, and we will find that students who only recently were enthralled by technologies such as those found in the Model Classroom now find them routine, workaday, and boring, in and of themselves. It will again fall to teachers, as it always has, to find new ways to engage students in learning without being able to rely on the "wow-factor" of technology to do their work for them.
Technology will always find its best application in the presence of dedicated and knowledgeable teachers who can act as guides, encouragers, and -- when necessary -- filters for students who have more access to more information (some of it unreliable) than any generation that has gone before.
7. Please add anything else you think we need to know to make our decision. (300-word limit)
During prior availabilities of the Model Classroom, I did not apply for one because I felt that the limited quantities of the technology militated against its use in a non-core academic class such as Spanish; I believed Model Classrooms would find better and more productive use in math, reading, social studies, and science classrooms. With the advent of our two-year program for high school credit, however, I believe the situation has changed drastically. I am now responsible for teaching one of a handful of middle-school classes for which student performance will be scrutinized not only during middle and high school, but for the process of college admissions. It is not an overstatement to say that my class will affect the rest of my students' lives. I believe that my students and I will succeed in this new challenge, and I believe the Model Classroom will be a vital component in that success.
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