💬 Banning Tech Part 2: Assessing the Value of Opportunities
How do you decide if one opportunity is more valuable than another? When I was in my mid thirties, I had three job offers pop up. I had ap…
Banning technology has been a topic that has come to the fore lately in Australian education, in particular, mobile devices. Too often the focus is on cognition and communicative, rather than the critical and constructive. I have discussed this further here. I think you are right that we need to start with instruction and then work from there.
Responses to Banning Technology
My blog post on Banning Technology has certainly kicked up some fascinating responses (read the EdTech Heresies). Aaron Davis’ impression is spot on:
Aaron makes some fascinating points in his discussion of banning technology:
I certainly agree that we are being hypocritical as educators when we ban devices then allow staff to use them right in front of the students. When we do that, we fail as role models for our children. Instead, let’s accept that banning technology doesn’t work. Rather, let’s leave those uses of technology for communication and collaboration at a distance, and instead focus on the REAL mission of schools.
That mission is to teach our children how to read, write and think at higher levels that simple decoding. For that kind of critical reading, we must put into place effective instructional strategies that add value, as Grant Lichtman says, to the education process.
While some pundits may certainly argue that banning cellphones, smartphones in schools prevents teaching digital citizenship, I disagree. We can still teach that without the technology. It’s called civility, empathy and compassion. What we need to ban is the edtech hype surrounding the use of technology in the classroom, and instead, begin, as Aaron says, with quality instruction centered around a reasonable curriculum.
Let’s stop doing the unnecessary, the “innovations” that don’t add value, and, as Schmoker says, “Focus.”