More on Alan November

I got a lot from Alan November because I wanted to learn how to do some of these things, I was already getting my feet wet in the 2.0 course, and we had our laptops in front of us so we could do things as he spoke. Having said that, one of the most disturbing things about his presentation is the extent to which it seemed affected by his use of the very technology he encouraged us to use.

He skipped around, stopped to tap onto the computer, and repeatedly failed to connect with sites to make his points. In a sense, his presentation was the worst possible example of the use of technology in teaching. And yet....it captured my attention in its breadth (Twitter to country codes to kid videos to the autistic child who taught himself) and it's familiarity (he's an old dog who's learned new tricks and so can we; in fact we have to or we cannot really teach). Of course we can teach, but his point that we'll lose a large number if kids if we don't learn these new tools is correct. We must learn to use these tools, but like any tool, we must use them well and for particular, well considered tasks. We don't need them because they are cool or new. We need them because with them we can be more effective.

Peter and I use mechanical tools in our classroom. Peter is expert with saws, hammers, drills, sanders, smelters, and more. However, he is very thoughtful about the utility of those items: he plans how and when children will use them. It's really the same with technology, except the students already know a good bit about using it. Still, just because one can use a hammer doesn't mean one can build a cabinet. Our job as teachers is to know how to build the cabinet ourselves and then to show/help/encourage the students to build it. While they may build a better cabinet, I still think we have to have the template in mind at the beginning, then be willing to let it change direction.

We have to ask ourselves, "are we using the technology or is it using us?" While I don't believe I spend an inordinate amount of my day, and certainly not my teaching day, messing around with technology, I do already see how it has affected my availability to students (what would I be doing if I weren't checking email?) and family (same question...or shopping or poking around to teach myself how to use it).

I recall when we first got voice mail at my then-law firm. In a way, we couldn't believe how helpful it was. No more phone tag (or so we thought then). But it changed things for the worse, as well. People thought you should return calls with an immediate solution because you had their question when they left the message. When we dialed voice mail from an airport, we heard the calm female machine-voice say "You have 54 messages." Stress out the wazoo. We had to learn to manage it. We'll have to continue to learn to do that here as well.

I think we must learn to manage technology not just to contain stress but to really engage with students. Teaching is primarily a relationship. If we avoid or displace the relationship by focusing on the technology, we'll all be poorer.