Note: This post is in response to ESC407 Week 11 Module 9 Blog 3
One of the biggest threats to the use of technology in the
classroom is the belief that students will be distracted by their devices and
learning outcomes will be affected. This results in the banning of devices in
the classroom (Johnson, 2012). Is technology a distraction? I would certainly
argue that it can be, and that there are certainly times when it is appropriate
that its use be banned but I would most definitely argue against a blanket ban
via a school policy or similar. And what counts as technology anyway? Should we
ban the use of a pencil or pen as well? Again, there are times and places where
we should. Would you allow a student to sit down in a sports lesson and write
an essay?
When we teach, we use different tools in different ways for
each lesson. We might ask students to open a textbook or a novel, take notes,
watch a video or paint a picture. Technology can be thought of in the same way –
just another tool (or indeed an incredible array of tools) for the teacher’s
toolbelt. Just as you can say “pens down” you can say “close devices” for one
lesson and ask students to use their devices to interact with each other during
another. Johnson (2012)
suggests that technology is not going to go away so rather than banning it, we
use its potential to enhance lessons, even going so far as to say that we
should not ban the use of the internet at school for non-academic purposes. We
must still use classroom management skills to ensure that learning is taking place
when it needs to which Johnson suggests may be as simple as walking around the
classroom. I do think that, as teachers it is our job to manage the use of
technology with our students. There is some evidence that at a university
level, laptop use negatively affects results (Ravizza, Uitvlugt, & Fenn, 2016) so I feel it is important to
teach students the skill of “switching off” when necessary and about the
impacts technology could have on their lives.
Ultimately students have always had the potential to be distracted
from what they’re supposed to be doing. As educators it is our job to engage
students in lessons such that they want to be there and they’re keen to learn.
References
Johnson, D. (2012). Managing disruptive technologies in the
classroom The classroom teacher's
technology survival guide (pp. 137-148). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ravizza, S. M., Uitvlugt, M. G., & Fenn, K. M. (2016). Logged in
and zoned out. Psychological Science, 28(2),
171-180. doi:10.1177/0956797616677314
