Education Today: Blending the Old and the New

I had the great fortune of spending last week--my spring break--in Europe.  Three days in Paris and three days in Rome.  I saw some interesting things that seemed to relate to my quandary about getting teachers to use data.  We must encourage them to blend the old and the new.  I was on the tower climb at Notre Dame Cathedral, "oohhing" and "aahhing" over the workmanship of the building and the gargoyles (and the view of Paris).  As I was coming out of the staircase at the end of the tower climb--of a building constructed over the period of the twelfth century--an electronic door swung open to let me out.  I am convinced that the electronic door was not part of the original construction.  But it did serve an important purpose.  No one has to "man" the door, and no one has to worry about the door being left open.  This is a great blend of using existing knowledge to create a contemporary solution to a problem.

Isn't this what we want teachers to do with technology and data?  We don't want or need them to throw out what they do well.  There will always be a place for "best practices."  However, we need them to understand that new technologies can help them gather information that can help redirect their teaching efforts productively, and it can help them engage students, who are growing up using technology on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis.

Oftentimes, teachers focus either on the technology or on the curriculum, not really understanding that they need to blend the two.  Though there is a "typo" in this animated demonstration chart, I still think it's quite an interesting model:  A Model of Technology Adoption

There is no doubt in my mind that technology can never and will never replace a teacher.  However, we need to encourage teachers to become comfortable with the technology that--if they only realized it--would make their jobs easier.


Consider the following quote from an article in T.H.E. Journal: 

"While technology has changed what is possible and how students can be supported and resourced in their learning, the principles of effective instruction never really change. The technology is not what drives learning but simply what mediates and supports the process; therefore, it is vital that professors, instructors and teachers remain focused on the overall process of learning and their own teaching strategies and methods throughout. What has significantly changed is the way in which these effective teaching strategies can be achieved at a higher level using new technology."

This kind of thinking represents what I'm talking about.  It's not about teachers doing more--it's about doing, more effectively what they already do.  If you'd like to read the entire article, here is the link:

Technology's Impact on Effective Teaching Strategies

One last point--and this one is just for a bit of fun--we all need to remember that the technology that seems so hard to us today will be what we fondly laugh about tomorrow.  Watch below.