Technology as a Tool

I was talking to some of our Seniors the other day about college, telling them that when I applied to college in 1981, I had to send a letter to each college from which I wanted information, and wait for a response in the mail. It made each day exciting, as new packages and envelopes arrived in our mailbox with glossy brochures and course catalogues. But it also seriously limited my options and my knowledge of what was possible. Technology has fundamentally changed this process, mostly for the good.

I think that last sentence is probably true in just about every industry and facet of our lives. It’s hard to remember the days when I didn’t have instant access to just about everything ever published anywhere on my phone. Even harder to remember are the days of three television channels (or five if it was a good day and I could pull in UHF channels 19 and 48). Technology is transforming education, but it is not an end; it is only a means. Today, we are in the midst of a revolution in education. For those who haven’t really followed this, here’s what I mean. For centuries, schools were the bastions of knowledge; professors and teachers were the keepers of that knowledge, and they delivered it from on high. Knowledge used to be the most expensive commodity in the world, available only to the very wealthy. Now it is cheap. With a smartphone and Google, I can find the answer to just about any question in a matter of seconds. What matters now more than ever is the ability to evaluate all the information, think critically and communicate clearly—precisely the skills that ESA has been teaching for 35 years. Technology can enhance teaching and learning, but it doesn’t replace it. In fact, research consistently shows the factor that has the greatest impact on student learning is the quality of the teacher. However, technology is a natural tool for communication, collaboration, creating presentations and other projects, as well as for research, data crunching and computing.

On our Cade campus (6-12) we have been growing our BYOD environment (bring your own device) for several years. We began by building the wireless infrastructure to handle a huge number of devices. We also became a Google School, using Google Apps for Education, which facilitates all of the skills we are trying to teach our students. Several of our teachers are in the process of becoming Google certified. We will offer our second blended class to our students next year to facilitate their asynchronous learning. A blended class is one that is a combination of an online course and a face-to-face course. On our Lafayette campus (PK3-5), we will introduce students to these skills next year by providing Chromebooks for our 3^rd – 5^th graders. These inexpensive laptops are built to work with Google Apps. Students will be taught keyboarding, research skills, applications and programs, as well as digital citizenship. But again (and I can’t stress this too much), technology is a tool to help us teach the high-level skills that our students need to succeed in the world: synthesis, evaluation, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.

The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate. Some 2500 years ago, Socrates complained that the whole new technology of writing things down was changing the world by stripping people of the ability to remember facts and create memories. But writing (like any technology) is only a tool to enhance teaching and learning. When you combine the right tools with fantastic teachers, amazing things happen. Some things never change.