mguhlin

Essential Tools for Teaching?

Over at Ask a Tech Teacher, Christian Miraglia (@T4EdTech), makes the following suggestions when teaching history. 

As I reviewed the examples, I was reminded of a colleague’s approach to teaching history that was also edtech rich. That is, relied quite heavily on technology to get the job done. I’m not saying that’s wrong. 

What I am reflecting on is whether that should be the way the job gets done going forward, given what we know about evidence-based strategies.

 

Image Source: Essential Tools for Girls, Ladies, and Women…Hmm.

Essential Tech Tools

In his guest blog entry, Christian shares the struggle every educator feels after a summer of professional development. What strategies and digital tools to adopt for use in the classroom. He writes:

 As a history teacher, I used the summertime to experiment and attend online professional development technology sessions and tech camps. No matter what, I  constantly faced decisions on what applications I would use in the upcoming year. 

On a few occasions, I made changes during the years as a fellow educator introduced me to a new exciting application that I thought might benefit my students. 

Still, I traditionally stuck with a set of programs so my students would not be confused. 

With the benefit of hindsight, and more reading under my belt, I’m tempted to push back on some ideas I would have agreed wholeheartedly with Christian about. 

Specifically, I would like to reflect on these three assertions:

  • Experimentation
  • Adopting new exciting application that MIGHT benefit students
  • Avoiding confusion by focusing on a set of programs

Wait, what are Christian’s essential tech tools? These are tools that wouldn’t cause anyone to bat an eye or argue with:

  • Pear Deck.  
    • This tool enhances student interaction, facilitates formative assessments (e.g. low stakes, retrieval practice). 
    • What’s more, it integrates with other popular tech such as 
      • MS Powerpoint, 
      • Google Slides, and 
      • Learning Management Systems (LMSs) like Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom or Schoology
  • Flipgrid (or Flip as it is now been renamed by Microsoft). An easy to use video recording and screencasting tool (under 10 mins) that comes with tons of content
  • Kami. This makes student annotation (including video) of a document in multiple spaces (e.g. Canvas, Google Workspace, and Microsoft) easy.

Those aren’t choices many would argue against. In fact, some would say that they are the perfect tools for use in the classroom. Each can be relied on to support educators designing and implementing lessons in the classroom. But again, I’d like to reflect on some of the other ideas expressed in the blog entry.

Idea #1: Experimentation

Every day, teachers are introduced to new digital tools. Each promises to transform teaching and learning. The challenge, of course, is that many won’t. The reason why isn’t included in the list of top reasons why NOT:

  • It costs too much. One of my favorite tools is WeVideo, but you have to pay $200+ for use of this video-editing tool. That’s why I don’t recommend it for classroom deployment.
  • It violates student privacy in some way. Another important question to consider is, “Does this app reveal Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about a student or the teacher?” Many are unfamiliar with how accounts are created on the back end, requiring the school’s/district’ transfer of student account data to the vendor, who may fail to safeguard it.
  • Requires manual account creation. If you have to create student accounts manually, that may be a show-stopper for a teacher who has multiple preps. A teacher may want to use the software service with students, but account creation and maintenance may put too much of a strain.

The real reason a lot of digital tools fail is that they rely on “engagement” or “Wow, this is cool!” rather than research-based strategies. That is, instructional strategies proven to work over time. Most technologies lack the research to support their adoption in the classroom. Often, paper-n-pencil approach is preferred over technology.

If you want to experiment with a new technology, best to first decide what evidence-based instructional strategy is going to guide the use of the digital tool. Without that, you aren’t conducting an experimentation that will result in guaranteed success. Instead, you are engaging in edutainment during precious instructional time.

Idea #2: Adopting New Applications that MIGHT Benefit Students

The first reflection on Experimentation idea is applicable here, as well. When we adopt new applications, we don’t know for sure if they will work. Or, we know that they will work because students will learn in spite of the digital tool. The question going around in my head is, “How will you know a new application benefited students in an academic way?”
This suggests that assessing students before, during, and after an intervention would need to be considered. What’s more, you’d have to decide if the intervention used could be separated from the instructional strategy in use. When you consider a digital tool like PearDeck, it becomes obvious that you are going to use it one of the following ways:
  • Make your presentation accessible to students, one on one, so they can see and hear the content of your presentation simultaneously
  • Send the message that you are credible as a teacher, able to use technology while presenting a lesson
  • Use it conduct short, low-stakes assessments that inform your teaching work as to where students are on their journey to the learning target(s)
  • Facilitate retrieval practice, or practice testing, that helps student engage in deep processing of content by retrieving it

You can also read about more strategies that rely on Pear Deck. As you can surmise (if you clicked on the links), there’s a LOT you can do with ONE tech tool. 

Should you really be experimenting with several in one school year, if one can do so much? At what point do you distract students, as well as yourself?

Idea #3: Avoiding Confusion

Finding lists of the top THREE tools isn’t hard. The question is, how many different instructional strategies and tools should we introduce into the classroom at a time? Is one instructional strategy (e.g. Jigsaw Method, Classroom Discussion, Problem-Solving Teaching) that matches the type of learning intention (e.g. Surface, Deep, or Transfer Learning) sufficient?

And, if so, what might happen with a teacher who has a whole dashboard of digital tools available? Is it possible that the teacher would simply set up multiple stations that focus on different technologies to process content, only to distract students?

If Again

You know, I’m not sure. If I had to teach history again, I would focus on the following:

  1. An evidence-based instructional strategy with a heuristic to scaffold students as they learn it
  2. A digital tool that supported a wide variety instructional strategies
  3. A way to encourage reflection that led to deeper applications of strategy and digital tool.

What do you think?

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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