Are we teachers so enchanted with shiny new tools such as Chromebooks and iPads that we are arbitrarily finding uses for them in the classroom? I mean, they're fun, right? I can personally attest to the students' excitement when they find out that an iPad or a Chromebook will be involved in a lesson -- is it because they love screens so much, or have we tapped into something larger?
I think the answer lies in the 1978 work of Lev Vygotsky, who identified the "zone of proximal development" in the mind of a learner. According to Vygotsky, this special zone is created when a student encounters a task that is too difficult for them to master on their own, but that can be accomplished with some assistance. In short, Vygotsky described that "sweet spot" -- a skill that is tantalizingly out of reach, but possible, for a student.
This is the "something larger" I alluded to earlier. Education can simply be tailored so much more easily using technology than any other method. Short of filling classrooms with 5-6 aides working at several different levels, our Chromebooks and iPads provide the customization that not only identify each student's "zone" but also offer the instant one-on-one guidance that makes the learning and individualization possible.
Each month brings a new proliferation of easily customized educational tools for students -- this wild growth of increasingly inexpensive and highly intelligent products seems to be following the scientific theory of "multiple discovery." Sure, Khan Academy may have been one of the first organizations to stumble upon the powerful effect of individualized learning through technology, but since the early 1990's the notion of "edutainment" and "gamification" have erupted in the minds of multiple educators and software engineers around the globe.
Why has it taken until 2017 for this concept -- individualized education using technology -- to bloom so wildly? For devices to be regular players in the classroom, and even the most Luddite teachers to grudgingly accept their use in the classroom? It's simply a matter of cost, which goes hand-in-hand with the near-universal acceptance of ubiquitous technology. Computers and other devices have become cheaper for many reasons, as have the many tools we can use to teach our students with them.
In my own classroom, I invited a teacher I called "Mr. Khan" into our classroom every day at 10:30, after I had finished my main math lesson of the day.
"Shall we ask, Mr. Khan?" I would ask a student who wanted to either work ahead, or review a concept we had discussed months ago. Students would leap at the chance to pull out laptops and invite Mr. Khan into our classroom. They rarely sat at their desks for this part of math class, but would find nooks and crannies in the classroom, sitting on pillows, underneath desks, and they would really engage in this part of the lesson.
Why? Why did this use of technology engage the students so much? This part of my lesson, unlike the group lesson I taught at 10am was exactly within each student's Zone of Proximal Development. The advanced students easily found the work the was just challenging enough, and the struggling students found the same thing -- both within different places, but while sitting back to back on pillows in a classroom.
In addition, I found that providing students with opportunities to use certain applications on their mobile devices gave them opportunities to, for example, readily photograph items for a digital scavenger hunt, and to explore corners of the world they would not otherwise have a chance to experience. All of these tools were readily used by all of the students, regardless of their general ability levels.
Based on my own experiences with technology in the classroom, as well as my learning on this topic, I suggest that educators should be prepared to include mobile devices in their classrooms in order to offer every student "the zone."
The guiding principles I suggest to teachers considering the use of technology in their classroom are simple. First, can the mobile tool I am offering to my students bring them into the "zone" better and faster than I can alone? Second, will the learning they acquire from the use of these devices be applicable to every student in the room. This would negate a tool that provides static resources -- it is the customization within a given app that can deliver the app to each student, regardless of their position on the bell curve.
References
Khan, Sal. "Let's Use Technology to Reinvent Education TED Talk." March 2011. Published by TED. Retrieved June 23, 2017 from https://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.
McLeod, Saul, "Zone of Proximal Development," 2012. Published by Simply Psychology. Retrieved June 23, 2017 from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html.
Photo credit: https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/18763946/thumb/1.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment