Empowering Students with Technology: Introduction

Alan November's book is the assigned reading for my current Master's class, "Teaching and Learning with Multimedia". The introduction discusses Shoshana Zuboff's distinction between automating and informating as these terms apply to education (Zuboff was writing about business).

When an organization automates, the work remains the same, the locus of control remains the same, the time and place remains the same, and the relationships remain the same. The same processes solve the same problems.

So much of what we do with technology in education is automation. Whether with pencil or word processor, encyclopedia or internet, if the intent is for the student to write a paper and turn it in, the technology used is irrelevant. Nothing has fundamentally changed, and ultimately, the technology does little, if anything, to improve student learning--work gets done faster but quality does not improve.

What makes informating more powerful is a shift of control and empowerment. The organization fundamentally changes the flow and control of information. . . The same technology can be required for both informating and automating. What makes the difference is the flow and control of information and the change in the relationships. Automating reinforces the current relationship of control. Informating leads to empowerment.

How many teachers are fundamentally unprepared for, unwilling to engage in, or down-right afraid of this kind of shift? No matter how much discussion of teachers as facilitators occurs, the reality is that many, too many, teachers are still lecturing, still driving the bus down a well-paved, single lane road.

One of the fundamental issues raised in class tonight is that automating is easy. Districts throw technology into schools and expect teachers to do amazing things. But where is the leadership and support? Much of the training into 1) how to use the technology and 2) how to integrate the technology in transformative ways into the curriculum is completely missing. Moreover, what training is available is often surface level and voluntary. Despite the flood of equipment, teachers are not required to learn how to use it well, in ways that will truly shape student learning and extend that learning beyond the classroom. Never mind that, at least in the district I work for, the technology standards are cross-curricular. Every teacher is supposed to be helping students meet these standards, but there is no mandate that the teachers be able to meet the same standards. As a result of NCLB, my district is starting to take hesitant steps, but this current movement does little beyond getting teachers to know basic computer skills. There is no on-going, district-wide discussion of how to make a computer more than just "a $2000 pencil".

I am excited by the transformative power of technology, frustrated by the realities of making it happen, and encouraged to continue working on technology committees, taking classes, and challenging my students to be more than...