Face Book posting, January 25, 2010 – 2:45 p.m.
I saw a piece in last week ASCD’s SmartLinks about SmartBoards and their effectiveness in the classroom. Many of you have heard me give my 2 rules for them – 1) Because they are a sizable investment (up to $5000) I would want them in use at least 50% of the time; 2) No teacher could touch them. I know, sounds counter intuitive, but the thought was that having students help learning occur via the Smartboards would have many benefits. Besides saving tons of money on PD for teachers, it would ensure deep student understanding of the concept by the students responsible for causing learning to occur that day, etc.
I made a comment on my FB page after posting the link to the ASCD story today and got some interesting reactions. Then as luck would have it, I watched a short video by Zak George. Now you may not have heard of him, but he works with dogs. One of the reasons I like him is because he stresses over and over that it’s not about control, it’s about the connection with your dog that is important, the “bond” that you have heard me talk about in referring to one of the great secrets in The Little Prince.
Zak was talking about discontinuing rewards once a “trick” is learned (Dan Pink would love this). In fact, he used the example that when you were in 2nd or 3rd grade you might have gotten a piece of candy from the teacher for learning your multiplication tables. By the time you are in 6th grade, that was certainly no longer the case. He said the whole point of the reward is not the focus on the behavior that is learned, but instead it’s a way to establish the connection and signify praise, pride and accomplishment of something new. That was when it hit me.
You have perhaps picked up on my observation that it’s all about relationships in the learning process – that’s what teachers (should) do best. Unfortunately, the relationship we hold to be most valuable is the one between the teacher and the content, and we see how the student reacts to that relationship. In a learning environment, the most important relationship should be between the teacher and the student, and the learning of content and skills is enabled by that relationship. The deeper it is, the more the child can and will learn.
This answered the technology question for me. We have made the same mistake there – we believe the untruth that the most important relationship is between the teacher and the technology, and then we see how the student reacts. Witness the huge investment in PD to help teachers understand how to use the newest technology. What we need to realize is that technology should be seen as just one more way to connect the teacher and the student. What’s the best way to use technology to connect with kids? I sure don’t think the answer is for the teacher to be the “guardian” of the technology, like the Wizard of Oz behind the screen moving the levers to impress Dorothy and her friends. If we recognize that technology is just one more way to connect to students, then teachers no longer need to feel like they have to be the expert, the guru, or the Wizard. They have the freedom to do what I originally suggested, turn the technology over to the student to use in accomplishing the goals. Don’t forget, Dorothy and company were not helped by the Wizard’s “technology”. They came to understand that it had been about relationships all along.
