Volume 13, Number 1
2003/2004
Dr. Karen Walker is an Assistant
Professor of Education at the University of Maine at
Farmington
Editor's note: This article was
reprinted with permission of the Association for Childhood
Education International in Focus on Middle School, 15,
1-5
At first, I thought denial might work.
I would just not use my computer. I had taught for many
years without it. I could continue doing so and be
effective. I was wrong.
While I was teaching, the students
pulled out their laptops and took notes. When they
participated in a jigsaw activity, they used the technology
on hand to teach their information. I felt oddly out of
place not using a computer.
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Leave No Teacher Behind,
Or, When Does Technology Become My Friend?
Do you remember when being
technologically savvy meant showing movies on a reel-to-reel
projector, making copies was done on an electric ditto
machine, and telling time was performed by actually looking
at the hands of a clock? That was the technological world
for which I was prepared when I entered the ranks of public
school teachers in 1975. As an educator of future middle
level and high school teachers, I often feel woefully ill
equipped (actually totally inadequate would be a more
accurate description) to use technology as an instructional
tool. Technology and I have a love-hate relationship. I
love it when it works and does what I want and hate it when
it doesn't. How can I use more sophisticated technology -
an overhead projector does not count - if I do not know it
and cannot explain it? I admit it. I am technologically
challenged. Is there a 12-step program for this
affliction?
Maine's former Governor, Angus King,
recently implemented Maine Learning Technology Initiative or
MLTI. In the 2002-2003 school year, every seventh grade
student in public school in Maine received an Apple iBook
laptop computer. This year, all eighth grade students will
also receive computers (Maine Learning Technology
Initiative). This program has sent the educators of Maine,
particularly those in the middle level, scrambling for
training and support. A few are just searching for cover in
hopes that this will go away like so many other programs
before it. I find myself sharing both
reactions.
The demands of using technology have also
been imposed on educators through the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001. The overall goal of this act is for student
achievement to improve through the development of literacy
skills, which includes the attainment of technological
literacy by the end of the eighth grade. This act clearly
states that teachers must utilize it as an instructional
tool and students must use it to enhance and support their
learning (No Child Left Behind).
Something that has become crystal clear
to me over the past year is that although college students
may take technology in the classroom courses, the training
seldom transfers into actual classroom settings. From a
survey conducted in May 2000 of former University of Maine
at Farmington (UMF) education students who had
concentrations in science and math, "…89% of the
respondents thought that UMF had prepared them well to
teach, but a full 60% claimed that UMF did not prepare them
to use technology in the classroom" (The Electronic Guild
Network). I have regularly and strongly stated to the
students taking my instruction and methods classes that
technology "is our friend and should be used to enhance and
support the instructional program." Yes, there has been
some hypocrisy in this suggestion. Why should it transfer
into their teaching when they have not seen it modeled
except in the specifically titled technology courses? Once
this blinding glimpse of the obvious emblazoned itself into
my consciousness, I found myself wondering how I could use
technology as an instructional tool, not as a technological
event.
"Be careful what you wish for, you might
get it," my mother often stated to me when growing up. I
began experiencing this sentiment when I was provided with
the first of several varied opportunities to teach in a new
intensive four week course sponsored by the federally funded
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology, also
referred to as the PT3 program (Preparing Tomorrow's
Teachers to Use Technology). The objectives of the course
were to provide students with an additional opportunity to
teach in a school prior to their student teaching
experiences, to utilize technology as an instructional tool
to help stimulate deeper student achievement, and to become
more cognizant of and well-versed in meeting the needs of
students who come from financially impoverished backgrounds
(The Electronic Guild Network).
UMF is one of the smallest campuses in
the state's university system, yet has the largest
undergraduate program in education, producing more than 20%
of Maine's teachers (The Electronic Guild Network). It is a
source of pride that the students are current and highly
prepared both in research trends and in their practical real
world training. However, student surveys consistently
indicate that students want more classroom experience prior
to student teaching.
To the untrained eye it may appear that
Maine's schools lack diversity, which is true if looking at
it from a racial lens. However, the diversity lies in the
staggeringly wide range of socio-economic levels. In the
United States, Maine is 50th in "adjusted disposable income"
(Western Maine Business Monthly). "For the fifth
consecutive year, approximately one out of every three Maine
students was eligible to receive free or reduced price
meals" (The Condition of K-12 Public Education in Maine).
For early practicum experiences, most of UMF's students are
placed in schools in Franklin County, which has a
"…median household income $6,000 lower than the
national average" (Maine Kids Count 2000 Data Book). There
appears to be a connection between socio-economic levels of
schools and technology. Research conducted by the Packard
Foundation found that "…schools serving poor children
were more likely to emphasize word processing and other
simple tasks while those serving more affluent students
taught computer skills to promote problem-solving and a
deeper understanding of an area of study" (New York
Times).
The intensive four week course, which I
team-taught in May term of 2002, was developed in response
to the governor's laptop initiative and national trends,
feedback from our students, and the realities of the state
and the schools in which most of our students will teach.
An iBook, just like the ones the seventh grade students and
teachers all received in the fall of 2002 was loaned to each
college student for the duration of this May term course and
their student teaching experience. The majority of students
in the course were scheduled to student teach in the fall or
spring of 2002. Three college professors were responsible
for this course. The director of the program taught all the
technology pieces in which the other professors and the
director's assistant participated as learners. One
professor supervised the college students placed in
elementary school classrooms. I taught the instructional
pieces on poverty and methodologies as well as supervised
the college students who were placed in middle and high
school classrooms.
The college students were to be in their
respective teacher's classes as integral parts of the
instructional environment. They were expected to utilize
technology in ways that stimulated higher levels of thinking
and demonstrated a link between the real world and the
classroom. Their students would have practical hands-on and
higher level experiences with technology.
My middle/secondary college students were
divided into work teams: 3 teams of two students and one
team of three students. Two dyads and the triad worked in a
socio-economically diverse middle school in a more urban
type of setting. One dyad taught in a high school in a more
rural setting, typical of many schools in Maine. In the
middle school, the two dyads worked on the same seventh
grade academic team, one in social studies and the other in
science. This team was at one of the state's demonstration
sites for the laptop initiative so all the middle school
students had Apple iBook laptop computers. The triad worked
with another group on a blended seventh and eighth grade
team with a social science teacher. There was one computer
in the classroom plus the three that the UMF students
brought. The high school dyad worked with a social science
teacher in one regular class and several honors classes.
There were two computers and one digital camera in this
setting along with the two computers and a digital camera
that the college students contributed. The university
course time was divided between work in the school setting
and class time on campus.
I proudly think of myself as a life-long
learner, however, as a student of technology, I found myself
slipping into the behaviors of students who are
uncomfortable because of a lack of self-confidence about the
subject matter. When attending the technology training
classes with my students, I sat with the other course
instructors (also known as those who were not born with a
computer chip in hand) as far away from the professor as
possible. It was hard enough on my ego to let my peers know
how scared and incompetent I felt, I certainly did not want
the professor, who was also a friend, to be aware of how
little I actually knew about the technology being used.
Something else became painfully clear. The college students
were light years ahead of the more chronologically advanced
participants. I recognized that the professor was speaking
English but using words and concepts that were totally
foreign to me. When did these words get added to the
language and how did I miss them? He and the college
students were not only using unfamiliar words and phrases
they also seemed to be speaking in some sort of alien
shorthand. Was this some sort of secret language known only
to those born in and after the 1980's? The last time I felt
this way was when I had taken quantitative statistics at the
doctoral level, where I so tightly wound an affective filter
around myself that information never had a chance of getting
through. How was I going to competently teach a class in
which all of my students had computers, were fearless in
their use of them, and thought in technological terms? Yes,
I was terrified! Where was that 12-step program?
Regardless of my technological comfort
level, it was my responsibility to provide a high quality
program and I was determined to do so. At first, I thought
denial might work. I would just not use my computer. I had
taught for many years without it. I could continue doing so
and be effective. I was wrong. In the first session, I
used the old-fashioned blackboard and overhead projector. A
strange thing happened. While I was teaching, the students
pulled out their laptops and took notes. When they
participated in a jigsaw activity, they used the technology
on hand to teach their information. I felt oddly out of
place not using a computer.
The next morning, the determined middle
level educator emerged from deep inside me and I felt the
urge to throw caution to the wind and use my computer as (a
gasp is appropriate here) an instructional tool! During the
previous semester, I had received a grant from my university
to obtain, learn, and use Inspiration software, a wonderful
visual brainstorming program. Although I had used this
program personally and could imagine utilizing it in my
teaching, actually doing so was uncharted territory. The
time had come to move into the 21st century and take
advantage of this opportunity. Initially there were a few
problems, such as not knowing exactly how to connect the
computer to the projector, making the print large enough for
the students to be able to read it and keeping all of the
brainstorming bubbles on the screen. These turned out to be
relatively minor issues. The students assisted me and we
learned more about technology from each other.
Surprisingly, setting up and utilizing technology as part of
my instructional program began to feel like business as
usual.
During this course, my college students
were able to incorporate technology into their work in
middle level/high school classrooms in creative, deep, and
meaningful ways. I observed seventh grade students in
social studies and science classes doing internet searches
for information on different countries, then developing
PowerPoint presentations which they shared with their
classmates. Seventh and eighth grade students conducted
internet searches on different aspects of available local
community services. Then they designed imovies on service
learning and presented them to Governor King. High school
students participated in scavenger hunts in which they
filmed artifacts representing themselves, and produced
imovies that they used in creative ways to engage their
classmates. What became abundantly clear to me was that the
teaching and learning of technology was a sharing experience
on a need-to-know basis. Although the formal title of
teacher went to the adults in the classrooms, everyone took
turns being the teacher and the student. Middle school
teachers who piloted the laptop initiative in Maine middle
schools the spring of 2002 had similar
experiences.
My learning curve was and still is on the
upswing. At times I feel overwhelmed by the amount of
technological and logical processing knowledge and skills I
do not possess. Two of the most valuable lessons that have
been modeled for me repeatedly are not to be afraid of
technology just because I may not know it and that students
are constantly teaching each other new technological
applications. I must admit that, although I still
experience feelings of hesitancy about integrating
technology into my instructional program, it is beginning to
feel more natural to use it than not to use it. My students
regularly teach me new applications. Instead of feeling
somewhat inadequate, I am now open to being a student of
technology and learning from those who know it best, my
students. I'm sure something similar is happening in middle
schools all over Maine as teachers and middle school
students participate in the laptop initiative.
It is my hope that because of my new and
improved attitude I am modeling what it means to be a
life-long learner. I am not yet thoroughly convinced that
technology will become my best friend, but I do not want to
be a teacher who is left behind by my students because of my
lack of technological skills. Does this mean I do not need
a 12-step program?
References
Maine Education Policy Research
Institute. (1999). The Condition of K-12 Public Education in
Maine.
Maine Kids Count 2000 Data Book.(2000).
Franklin County.
Maine Learning Technology Initiative.
(n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2002 from www.state.me.us/mlte
New York Times. (January 22, 2001).
No Child Left Behind. (n.d.). Retrieved
July 5, 2002 from www.NoChildLeftBehind.gov
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use
Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved July 15, 2002 from
www.pt3.org/technology/leavenochildbehind.html
The Electronic Guild. (n.d.). Retrieved
June 30, 2002 from www.pt3.umf.maine.edu
Western Maine Business Monthly. (April,
2000).
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