- Image via Wikipedia
Someone tweeted “Good teachers don’t need technology”. Like so many on Twitter, the tweet was sent and then quickly disappeared down the timeline and yet the phrase stuck in my mind.
It stuck in my mind because basically I don’t agree with it. The sentiment may have been well meant and witty but I do not think it is correct. All teachers need technology, whether they are good teachers or not. If I were asked to define what makes a good teacher, I very much doubt that I would include in my definition the fact that they do not use technology.
For me a good teacher will know that ‘learning’ is more important than ‘teaching’. A teacher can stand in front of the class and be as animated, as enthusiastic, as engaging etc. as they like but if the learners are not learning then the teacher is wasting their time. Technology is a resource to support learning and a good teacher will welcome all such resources. A good teacher will select and match resources to fit the ability and levels of the learners. A good teacher will not reject a resource simply because it is a technology resource (though sadly a teacher may have to reject a resource if they do not have the correct technology to run the resource).
Technology is very much part of our society and, I think, of most societies in the 21st century. The levels and types of technology may vary from society to society but technology is still a part in present or future provision. A teacher who eschews all use of technology in their teaching is probably placing their teaching outside of its societal context; I’m not sure that that is a sign of a good teacher.
A corollary of ‘good teachers don’t need technology’ might be to say that only poor teachers use technology to support their teaching. That is a statement which I would find completely unsupportable and without any evidence.
For me a good teacher will make effective and extensive use of technology to support learning. A good teacher will be constantly evaluating the technology and will be seeking new ways of using technology in their teaching. A good teacher will observe how the learners use technology and will seek to harness such uses to support learning. A good teacher will recognise the uses of technology and will be prepared to make use of such technology.
A teacher in the 21st century who doesn’t feel that technology can help them in their teaching is probably not a good teacher.
Update June 2010
I haven’t moved from my last statement that a teacher who feels that technology cannot help them in their teaching is probably not a good teacher. I would now go further and say the same applies to schools; any school that feels technology cannot help in the education of their pupils is probably not a good school.
What has happened since the original post is that the Government in the UK has closed the leading educational ICT agency, Becta. This has led to a lot of uncertainty within the sector regarding the future of ICT in education and the government’s view view of the importance of educational ICT.
One aspect of the closure which seems to be overlooked, however, is that the agency was closed because of its costs and not because of any ineffectiveness or lack of relevancy. That is to say that the government closed the agency to cut down on public expenditure in this time of financial difficulty rather than because it was irrelevant.
Nevertheless, the lack of a central body monitoring, promoting or steering educational technology does raise concerns about the future developments. It would also seem to place greater emphasis upon schools and ,perhaps, individual teachers to ensure and implement educational ICT.
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Post Revisions:
- 17 June, 2010 @ 7:45 [Current Revision] by doug
- 17 June, 2010 @ 7:45 by doug
- 16 June, 2010 @ 12:16 by doug
- 16 June, 2010 @ 12:16 by doug
- 1 June, 2010 @ 9:29 by doug
- 1 June, 2010 @ 9:29 by doug
- 31 May, 2010 @ 20:29 by doug
Tags: Educational technology
Agreed. You can’t get away from tech anyway. Even slates and blackboards are examples of technology!
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Great post Doug. It’s nice to hear a different perspective. What I’ve heard recently is that “technology doesn’t make a better teacher.” while this is true to an extent, teaching is a lifelong learning profession. We’re 10 years into the 21st century. Times have changed.
I believe it was @Luke1946 that tweeted, “Good teachers don’t need technology, technology needs good teachers.”
Thanks for the post!
Had the privilege of hearing Terry Holliday the Kentucky Commissioner of Education speak on Friday. He echoes these sentiments. He said that he has heard several teachers say “I’ve been teaching this way for 20 (or 30) years and it’s working fine.” He went on to say that the standard teacher as lecturer lesson delivery has been happening for over 100 years, and that it’s only reaching 50% of kids, and that is not good enough.
I’m with you: There are many things a teacher could forgo and still get the job (learning) done. But good teachers know that there are tools and techniques which will enhance learning. And it isn’t just about things that plug in. The chalkboard represented cutting edge technology at one time.
I was led to your post via a Tweet and title intrigued me. I have been actually thinking about this, but more along the lines of ‘Can You Teach Without Tech?’.
I think that questions such as these do not have a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. (Though some magazines might want you to take such a stance.) The answers to these questions really need to look at the pedagogy of teaching, rather than on the tools used to teach.
Another interesting question might be ‘Can Students Learn Without the Tech?’.
And since we are still faced with digital divides, school budgets slashing what little technology resources might be available to teachers, and staff that continues to look at the “WOW!” factor rather than on the pedagogical factor of tech tools I would rather see ‘technology’ replaced with ‘resources’ (whatever those may be).
Just my 3 cents worth.
Great post! I completely agree – but what makes a teacher good? It’s not their use of tech, it’s their wise choices about appropriate use so it enhances learning. People who use tech appropriately are just as likely to use a wide variety of techniques to engage and inspire.
[...] me, a good teacher is one who uses technology in their work ( see my article elsewhere on good teachers and technology), a great teacher is one who extends that to encourage, support and develop their learners’ [...]
Doug,
As some of the other comments have stated, if you limit your definition of teaching=uses technology, you look past the pedigogy and eliminate too much. My examples of great teachers who don’t use technology, as defined by the 21st century skills, are some of the great First Nations Elders who bring to our students some of the c
Teachings that are fundamental to their cultures. Other teachers, do use tech in some classes, do an awesome job without tech in others. Having an understanding of how these resources/tools improve the learning relationship is what makes these great teachers. They understand that for learning to happen a dissonance between what is known and new information must be created and they have a large reptoire of learning strategies which they employ where as many teachers look at tech from a teaching strategies perspective. So, great teachers aren’t the ones who just know about the use of technologies, they choose learning strategies that create learning opportunities which may or may not mean the use of technology.