The Changing Landscape of Technology

Each week it seems as though a shiny new tech toy hits the Internet. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and under-qualified to address these technologies and use them competently. Afterall, technology is becoming smaller and faster. We started out with computers the size of rooms, and now we have smartphones in our pockets. Someday we might even use injectables or software in our fingertips contact lenses...while Google Glass was a failure, there is always another newer and smaller technology waiting in the wings (Reynolds).

In a way, addressing technology is similar to traveling to a friend’s home. Whether you use verbal instructions, a printed road map, an out-of-date Garmin, or Waze, the basics are the same: while you might take a different route each time, the location of your friend’s home remains constant. 

Quite simply, the landscape has not changed. What has changed is your means of arriving at your destination. I believe that if you cultivate problem-solving and critical thinking skills in your students (whether they are children or your fellow teachers), they can tackle new technology with aplomb. 

I think that the most important technological skills a student can develop revolve around digital citizenship. They need to know that the Internet is not anonymous, and that it is forever. (Or, it might as well be.) If students learn to navigate technology in thoughtful, ethical and smart ways, they have the keys to success (Cyberwise). To extend my comparison a step further, we want “drivers” who are respectful, observant, and follow the rules of the road. One great resource that I’ve found is cyberwise.org, which is a nonprofit organization that provides educational tools to adults and a digital citizenship curriculum to middle school students.

In a 2016 article on the website Cult of Pedagogy, Educator Jennifer Gonzalez warned against what she calls an over-obsession with “neat-o tech.” She wrote, “Our students will absolutely benefit from learning how to combine text with images, manipulate presentations to make them more interesting, and make use of all the digital tools at their disposal. But when a student burns two hours listening to sound clips so he can make a photo of Langston Hughes zoom onto his PowerPoint slide to the sound of screeching brakes, well, he’s probably not doing much thinking about the Harlem Renaissance.”

Gonzalez’ article made the point that lessons are not supposed to be about the technology themselves, but about how the student can use these tools to enhance and support their learning. But how can one learn about the tools and how they can be used in the classroom? On a completely related note, Gonzalez has also written The Teacher’s Guide to Tech 2020. This guide, which can be purchased for $25, includes more than “350 educational technology tools” which are grouped into "51 categories, including tools for assessment, flipped learning, presentation, parent engagement, video production,” and more (Teacher’s Guide). It sounds like a wonderful encyclopedic resource that could help teachers quickly assess whether or not a tool could be valuable as part of a lesson.

Using these two tools — cyberwise.org and The Teacher’s Guide to Tech 2020 — can prepare school librarians to meet the ever-changing faces of technology with confidence.

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WORKS CITED

Cult of Pedagogy. The Teacher's Guide to Tech 2020: A User-Friendly Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, 2020, https://cultofpedagogy.teachable.com/p/teachersguidetotech2020 (Links to an external site.).

Cyberwise. Our Top Digital Citizenship Resources, 2019, https://www.cyberwise.org/digital-citizenship-resources (Links to an external site.).

Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” Cult of Pedagogy, 30 Oct. 2016,  https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/grecian-urn-lesson/ (Links to an external site.).

Reynolds, Siimon. “Why Google Glass Failed: A Marketing Lesson.” Forbes, 5 Feb. 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/siimonreynolds/2015/02/05/why-google-glass-failed/#1aa921d351b (Links to an external site.).