Tech Troubles

Tech in--and as--the Classroom

As difficult as it is to believe, access to technology is not ubiquitous. I've read so much about how wired students are--but just when I started to almost accept that as truth, it was exposed as a fallacy. Not all my students--let me say, college students--actually have computers at home. This is not shocking, but it is frustrating.

In a time when teachers are encouraged to provide electronic access, not all students have access to the technology that enables them to participate in online or electronic activities. Even having just one student in this situation throws off the most carefully planned lessons. In these cases, I have made copies of materials, scaled back or changed lessons, and at times tried to arrange for computer access during class time.

Even though I have encountered access issues, I have yet to deal with privacy breaches. Avoiding such issues takes a good deal of forethought and negotiation with students. Students want information; their identities must be protected, even from one another, to some extent. Their email is private, their student information is private, and so on. One wrong keystroke is all it would take to compromise them. Even though they may have TMI on their Facebooks pages, the universities must hold data sacrosant--with very good reason.

The dehumanization resulting from technology is complex. Students and teachers are held at some faceless, inaudible distance from one another. Yes, we're humans interacting with one another, but there is a lack of warmth in purely electronic communication, no matter how many exclamation points or emoticons are added. This is the most difficult concept to manage in an online classroom environment. The deeper personal connections are not quite there, and I'm not sure how to change that. Being present, being responsive to students--these are the methods I use, but the relationships that last after the class are still the ones that happen in classic classroom environments. This saddens me.

Technology and Behavior

Technology is not transparent. I am quite conscious of the technology around me and at my fingertips. There are days I wish it would all disappear for a few hours, but the draw of ease and instant gratification is too strong. I communicate with people much more than I used to. Email especially has made that easier; so has the cell phone. However, I truly wonder how many times I need to talk to my sister in the course of a day. I used to talk to her once a week. Is our relationship stronger? Maybe, but it was pretty strong before.

At the touch of a button, the click of a mouse, I have more information than I ever dreamt of before. This makes finding recipes and relatives easier, and I can perform scholarly research without venturing out into the rain, instead staying warm and dry inside. 

I'm going to leave out television and all that *old* stuff (and, yes, that's meant to be facetious).

Am I lazy? To some extent. Is my attention span shorter? No, actually it's not. But my patience is. I'm not always happy to have to wait for information--and neither are my students. At least I understand that about them.  

Research?

Yes, of course. I love to ask my students what technology they use and how they use it. They always impress me. I wish they actually were impressed with themselves. I would love to help them leverage technology in the classroom to help them enhance their critical thinking and writing skills. This is what my primary research concerns are--and there are many more on the way.