The Spectacle of Technology

When looking at 21st Century education and integrating technology into the classroom, something that I think educators should be aware of is how we are implementing technology and the reasoning behind it.  One of the main arguments that I have come across would be by Neil Postman in his 1990 speech regarding the use of technology in schools. 

He argues that when individuals encounter and use technology they enter a “Faustian bargain where technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure” (pg. 2).  In this argument, he is stating that when new technology is introduced it tends to favour some groups of individuals, while harming others.  He states that this bargain creates both winners and losers depending on which group benefits from the use of technology.  In the context of the education system it is most often that the students are the losers and the teachers or administration are the winners.  Teachers tend to be the winners as they attempt to teach students how to operate the technology rather than teaching them valuable skills or allowing them to create using the technology.  The teachers will encourage students to be enthusiastic about technology as they give examples of the many different tasks that can be performed more easily.  This idea can also show a parallel in the relationship between administration and teachers.  The administration may be adamant about the use of technology in the classroom and attempt to persuade teachers into using it.  Postman argues that when the losers become skeptical of the uses of technology or become bored with it, the winners will attempt to dazzle them by showing the losers marvellous feats that technology can perform.  These feats may have no relevance to the losers’ every day lives however they are still dazzled by them. 

In my practice placements I have witnessed this bargain going on in the classrooms and in some cases I have even participated in it.  In one of my placements I was teaching a grade 10 and grade 11 math class.  For the majority of the class I would use the chalkboard to present the lesson and on occasion I would use a projector and laptop to show the lessons.  This would often include simple slides to a virtual die that would roll and the result would be used to answer probability questions.  This was not often used as the technology would use its appeal.  Here this bargain would have the teachers winning as they have students' engagement for the lesson and the students would be losers as they are not learning anything relatively new or beneficial to them from the technology.

While I do not agree with this form of integrating technology, one of the main issues that I  dealt with was time constraints.  In the teaching placement I had to go into the classroom, develop lesson plans for 3 classes with limited preparation time as well as integrate myself into a new school environment.  While this is just for a practice teaching placement I can only imagine the amount of time a full time teacher would require to successfully implement technology into the classroom.

Along with the issue of time, I was also faced with limited supplies and administrative issues.  In the school there was only a single projector for an entire department however it was hid in the classroom I was in.  The limited supplies limited other teachers to what technology they could implement in the classroom.  There was a changing environment in the school as they were beginning to install smart boards into the classrooms, however there was not an observable urgency in having them implemented.  Throughout my entire 4 week placement the smart board remained in boxes in the staff room and they were not installed.  I checked back in with my associate teacher and found that the smart board had still not been installed after March Break.  While I do not know for sure if this was purely an administrative issue, I would like to think that if one was driven to integrate technology into the classroom 4 weeks would be unacceptable.

Despite these issues, it still falls on the teacher to successfully implement technology into the classroom in hopes that students acquire 21st Century skills, however we must be sure to implement it properly to provide students with learning opportunities rather than as a tool to increase engagement.