Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2016

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TECHNOLOGY: THE GIFT AND THE CHALLENGE OF 21ST CENTURY TEACHING AND LEARNING

AUTHOR Ms Jacinda Euler Principal

truly questioning its value. More often than not, this exciting new technology actually has our students doing dumb work. Carol Steiker, a Professor at Harvard Law School, observed that her students were not just suffering from inattention, but were also losing the ability to take notes, becoming little more than stenographers who were ‘transcribing’ their lectures and one of her most concerning observations was that these students did not want to be interrupted (cited in Turkle, 2015). It is only through dialogue in a safe and trusting environment that ideas, sometimes even abhorrent ones, may be presented, dissected and rejected — or beautiful alternatives entertained. Seeing the responses on the faces of others, their offence and outrage even, and the effect of our words on another, can never be entirely simulated through technology. Politicians, bureaucrats and IT companies can have us believe that more money for technology will deliver ‘improved outcomes for students,’ but if the development of character and confidence, the ability to empathise, to think deeply, to articulate a view and have it challenged are important outcomes, how are we to measure those? And does technology assist in the development of these fundamental and intrinsically humanistic skills? Only sometimes. Brisbane Girls Grammar School introduced the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programme in 2014, recognising the world we live in, the resources that girls are familiar with and the benefits they can derive from technology. The programme allows students to transition their learning seamlessly between home, school and alternative wireless environments, such as local libraries, and mirrors the model used in tertiary institutions. We focus on educating girls to use laptops and other technology judiciously, and only when they might genuinely improve learning. Girls do not use laptops in every lesson every day — we educate them to use technology only as and when required, to understand the challenges inherent in its use

AS EDUCATORS, WE HAVE LONG UNDERSTOOD THAT TECHNOLOGY IS A TOOL THAT DOES NOT REPLACE THE PRESENCE OF THE HUMAN IN TEACHING CHILDREN TO THINK. GOOD PEDAGOGUES ADVOCATE WHAT IS SIMPLY GOOD SENSE: THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF A TEACHER WHO LOOKS A STUDENT IN THE EYE, LISTENS AND RESPONDS, JUST AS STUDENTS MUST LISTEN AND RESPOND TO ONE ANOTHER. TECHNOLOGY CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT REPLACE THIS, BUT THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT THE TWO CANNOT WORK VERY POWERFULLY IN TANDEM TO SUPPORT STUDENT LEARNING. In Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Sherry Turkle’s book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age , she reminds us that ‘face-to-face conversation is the most human — and humanising — thing we do. Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. It is where we develop the capacity for empathy’ (2015). But Turkle also observes that with the pervasiveness of technology, ‘we find ways around conversation. We hide from each other even as we’re constantly connected’ (2015). Technology has allowed it and we know it. As parents, distracted by our devices we can find ourselves struggling to look our children in the eye or to stop and be fully present and to listen. As teachers, we understand that the best lessons are often those when the laptop is firmly slammed shut. Turkle is not anti-technology and acknowledges that ‘laptops and smartphones are not things to remove, that they are facts of life and part of our creative lives. The goal is to use them with greater intention’ and to not be ‘dazzled’ by them (2015). So much of the distraction of technology has taken this path when something shiny and exciting comes along and is latched onto without

GRAMMAR GAZETTE