Landrum Kelly.

My  hero.

 And he’s not the only one.  Read the whole thread.

Margaret Soltan, 7:28AM
Posted in: heroes

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9 Responses to “Landrum Kelly.”

  1. Ira Socol Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 7:48AM

    Thanks for the link… here’s what I had to say…

    First, I wish commenters here understood the definition of technology. Even Landrum Kelly seems a massive believer in the ability of technology to determine how things are taught. Books, chalkboards, the classroom or lecture hall, the time schedule, chairs and desks – these are all technologies which can be used well for education or used poorly. So are data projectors, laptops, mobile phones, email, blogs, etc.

    Different eras of human communication have always included differing tools. Literacy in ancient Greece changed the way education was delivered. That way was either good or bad depending on whether you believed in the essentialness of memory – but the technology triumphed. Gutenberg’s invention 500 years ago transformed things again – good or bad – books became widely available but half the languages of Europe vanished within 200 years – still, the technology triumphed. The chalkboard scared most educators as it spread widely through the 1840s and 1850s – good and bad no doubt, but yet again.

    So you either use the technologies of the present or you use the technologies of the past. That is the choice, there is no "natural" learning environment in schooling.

    But please do not use technology badly – the classic powerpoint which is nothing more than the filmstrip of the 21st Century – and then complain about it. If your students have these amazing interactive machines with them – use them – use the ability to seek information instantly, use the ability to communicate, use the ability to share and display. Say, "Please look that up for me," or "Please find an opposing argument," or "Is there support for that if you search the journals in the library?" or "Send that to the class." or "Text your friends and we’ll do a survey." or even, "Does what I’m saying seem to be true if you look it up?"

    If you use these ICT devices with their potential, and your students potential, in mind, you will discover that technology really can change education.

    Don’t believe me? Would teaching chemistry change if there was no lab equipment? Would teaching English change if there was no paper? Would teaching in the rain change if there was no roof?

  2. david foster Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 9:17AM

    This story is from the world of manufacturing, but I think it has general relevant to the application and misapplication of technology.

  3. Bonzo Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 9:25AM

    Hmm..

    As usual, UD throws a chunk of meat over the fence, and waits to see the dogs come out to fight over it.

    1) I strongly believe that a lot of money is being wasted at cash-strapped colleges and universities on technology usually at the behest of administrators who want to be up-to-date (damn, I hate the quotation restrictions on this site) without really understanding very much about teaching.

    2) Let’s not force the people to be free. If a faculty member chooses not to use technology – and does a good job – more power to them.

    3) All I want in my classroom is a place where I can plug in my laptop to show my powerpoint presentation. [Bury me at the crossroad at high noon with a golden stake through my heart.] If the school can’t afford to have every classroom so equipped, then limit the number of such classrooms to those who want or need them.

    Best,

    Bonzo.

    ps. I did not mean the first sentence to be critical. This is a great topic and discussion is worthwhile. I just wish the people behind the curtains pulling the levers would pay a little attention to these issues.

  4. Ira Socol Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 9:54AM

    Bonzo:

    re: "If a faculty member chooses not to use technology – and does a good job – more power to them."

    agreed, except:

    as that interferes with accessibility or student technology choice. For example, I hate PowerPoint but unlike stuff written on a chalkboard, I can sent the PowerPoint presentation to a visually impaired or dyslexic student and they can have it read to them via the free software PowerTalk. That is a very important, and very critical, difference.

  5. NDC Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 10:07AM

    What was most appalling to me in that discussion thread was how the empty rhetoric of colleges of education is now presented in higher education conversations.

    It is not a valid, measurable or achievable goal of any particular course or program to make someone a "life-long learner."

    Being a life-long learner might be an the byproduct of enduringly meaningful content, well taught to motivated and engaged students, but it sure isn’t going to come about or be repressed largely by anything the IT department offers.

  6. Did I just step in some Technology? « Paragraph City Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 4:06PM

    [...] Item one: an occasionally heated discussion of the “don’t push tech on me” – “you’re such a Luddite” variety that University Diaries points out here: http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=3740 [...]

  7. Shannon Chamberlain Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 8:03PM

    I certainly agree with UD on the nefarious PowerPoint (the filmstrip of the 20th-century indeed, Ira), but, as with most things, we have to pick the best things and toss out the rest. I took a Nabokov class last quarter that greatly benefited from an online discussion group. It brought out the shy students and allowed all of us to work out some of the preliminary questions ("uh, isn’t Humbert a victim too?") before we got to the actual class. A post per week was mandatory; most people easily exceeded it after we’d reached a certain critical mass. So I’m reluctant to toss out "technology" as a whole: just the parts that allow students to become more passive than they already are. PowerPoint clearly falls into this category, but not everything does.

  8. Bonzo Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 8:50PM

    “Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.”

    VN

    (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

  9. Ira Socol Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 10:09PM

    As Paragraph City suggests on his site, I do encourage everyone who doubts the potential impact of the new ICTs on education to take a look at the Horizon Report for 2008.
    http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD5320.pdf
    The changes seem to be coming whether the "education community" wants them or not.

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