Technology expert Chris Dede doesn't particularly like information technologies. He does, however, like more traditional technologies such as tables and chairs. A table, for example, is simple and reliable. Once you learn how to use it, you don't have to learn anything else.
Photo by Mark Regan
On the other hand, a computer is more complex. You have to learn how to set it up, install and operate the software, and connect it to the Internet. And once that is done, it quickly becomes obsolete, needing a faster processor, upgraded software, and more efficient Internet access. Yet, despite these drawbacks, learning with information technologies presents a long list of opportunities for students — and corresponding challenges for educators.
Most students tend to "lurk," or attend marginally, to activities in the traditional face-to-face classroom, Dede told his audience. But when information technologies become part of a "distributed learning environment," many of the lurkers come alive and find their voices. Such an environment engages students in a face-to-face classroom setting as well as in any location through which they can access an Internet-based, or virtual, classroom.
Quiet students become leaders using alternative forms of rhetoric — visual, auditory, kinesthetic, symbolic, Dede said. Some students like to think about their answers before responding or can't keep up with the pace of classroom dialogue. In a distributed learning environment, they can participate fully, using their individual patterns and preferences for media.
Dede cited benefits of the virtual classroom for specific student populations. Some students don't have English as their first language and must take more time to think about content and compose a response, he said, which an online setting allows. Likewise, some students feel less authentic in face-to-face environments because of their physical disabilities. In a virtual environment with mediated interaction, their contributions can be better accepted.
Another advantage of a distributed learning environment, Dede said, is that students' comments are not directed entirely toward the teacher; they are shared more broadly among other students, creating a more realistic, motivating experience. Freed from "the tyranny of time," students have an expanded sense of learning time; learning becomes deeper; and schools get better educational outcomes.
The Easiest Trap
Dede observes that the easiest trap for educators is to assume that students are just like us — adults who are comfortable in face-to-face environments. We simply cannot assume that about our students anymore, he said.
So, when we adults learn about using information technologies, we find that it's not hard to learn about the technologies themselves. What is harder, he explained, is relearning pedagogy and content in a mediated, technology-rich environment — and what is really hard is unlearning the beliefs, assumptions, and values we hold about teaching, learning, and technology from our experience of being students first and then educators in a traditional system.
We need to engage in professional development experiences that are not just intellectual but also social and emotional, Dede urged. When a cohort of educators engages in a process of learning and unlearning that involves much emotional and social support, the result is more powerful and enduring.
To use high-quality learning tools and materials effectively, we must satisfy several conditions, he explained. We must provide extensive professional development for educators, install a strong technical infrastructure, make organizational shifts to enable deeper content through more powerful pedagogies, involve more stakeholders, and provide equity in content and services.
When Dede refers to technology equity, he means more than access and literacy. These are great places to start, but terrible places to stop measuring the value of information technologies in education. We must extend the conversation to talk about empowerment and real democracy.
If technology was initially viewed as a magic bullet to cure education, and then as a means to automate what we already do in education, it's time we took a third perspective, Dede said. We must view technology as the means to innovate in education, providing opportunities to think differently, work differently, and interact more deeply. Otherwise, instead of inventing our own futures, we will spend all of our time responding to a series of random events and teaching our children to do the same.