The purpose of this article is to convince more schools to purchase 3D printers by explaining some of the many cool things you can do with them. It's the kind of pep talk that makes me think that nowadays, if you can dream it, you can do it.
This article gives a vivid example of why it's important to have a solid vision for learning, before investing in tech. The progressive vision is the key ingredient.
This is the article that talks about online physics teacher Andrew Vanden Heuvel, who took U.S. students on a virtual field trip to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, using Google Glass.
In 2013, Los Angeles Unified School District started handing iPads out to its students. In fact, it was unrolling one of the biggest investments ever in technology in schools, with the goal of getting an iPad into the hands of every student in every school in the massive district. LAUSD planned to invest 1.3 billion dollars in the program, but it never really got off the ground. From the start, the tech initiative was controversial; there were accusations that school leaders had made backroom deals with Pearson and Apple before opening the project to bids from vendors. Then, once teachers and students starting using the iPads and the Pearson learning platform, it didn't work. The platform had major glitches, so much so that most schools stopped using it.
Issie Lapowsky, writing for WIRED magazine online in May 2015, cited a few key takeaways from LAUSD's misadventure in large-scale tech investment. First, start with a vision for what you want teaching and learning to look like at your school. Then hire a vendor who can make the vision happen. If you do it the other way around, with the vendor first, you end up buying whatever the vendor has on offer, whether or not it really helps the school achieve its long-term goals.
To add to Lapowsky's observations, it's worth asking why we want to invest in technology in the first place. What is it that the technology will allow us to do that we couldn't otherwise? Tech devices can enable students to participate more in their learning, to create, to share and collaborate in real time across a variety of traditional boundaries, and to engage with content specifically suited to their learning needs. The right content accessed through tech devices can appeal to today's learners on a fundamental level, due to the pervasiveness of digital devices in our students' lives. It's like if we can teach using tech, we're speaking students' native language. However, it's common for schools to use tech to try to spruce up the same tired lesson plans and outdated objectives. In order for digital devices to truly revolutionize education, we need a revolutionary vision for what we want students to do with the tech.
Lapowsky suggests that when you're defining your school's vision, you should ask teachers and principals themselves to participate in the process. The Milpitas Unified School District, also in California, took this approach when they began a Chromebook program in 2012. "Any time you control things from the top, you get compliance," said school superintendent Cary Matsuoka. "We wanted to say: here's the model. Come up with your version of it and go test it." This grassroots approach has been quite successful, and Milpitas is being cited now as a leader in tech integration.
Lapowsky's article got me thinking about my own vision for tech in the classroom. I want to use tech as a creative tool, for blogging, making videos, recording podcasts, and making art. Students can respond to the class content with their own creations, thus encoding the learning on a deeper level and playing an active role in a conversation that goes beyond the school walls. I also want to use tech to facilitate an inquiry approach to learning rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. What I mean by that is that I want students to explore class topics and build their own "textbooks" online, by accessing quality resources (blogs, articles, videos) and contacting people who can help them (classmates, students at other schools, experts in the field). Another important guideline is to get the right tool for the job. If we're going to be writing essays, we'll probably want laptops. If we're going to be reading online, making a video, or using a learning platform like Khan Academy, an iPad would probably be appropriate. Finally, whatever I happen to be teaching, I will always be teaching life skills like collaboration and critical thinking. I'll plan lessons based on both content and 21st century skills standards. That way, I'll be reminded to structure the lessons themselves in ways that foster student autonomy, rich feedback and revision, and creative engagement.
One way to make this vision a reality is through a flipped classroom. I can use our class website as a space for posting articles, videos, blog links, photos, and sound recordings related to our learning. Students can explore this content at home, and be tasked with finding additional resources to enhance their understanding. Then, when they come to class, they can work on creative projects related to the content, and my role can become one of coach and facilitator, helping students to achieve their own goals. Rather than following a packaged program, students help to construct their own learning experience. Another way I can achieve my vision is by planning my instruction in meaningful units, rather than piecemeal lessons. Each unit can address a real world problem and give students a chance to respond in creative ways. For example, a unit on perimeter and area can result with students working in teams to put together proposals for the redesign of a poorly-used urban space in their community. Their proposal could include a blueprint (to scale, with accurate measurements), a budget, and a marketing plan. Students could use tech to research public spaces, draw the blueprint, calculate the budget (spreadsheet), and create their marketing materials. Perhaps it would be possible to have students share their ideas with an architect online and get a response, via video chat.
If we take tech innovation as an opportunity to do something new in education, it's an exciting time to be a teacher. The most important thing seems to be our underlying philosophy- are we content to carry on with business as usual, or are we dedicated to using digital technologies to their fullest potential? It makes me think of film director J.J. Abrams' talk at TED, where he pointed at his Apple Powerbook and said, "It challenges me - it says, you know, what are you going to write worthy of me?" It would be a decent question for us to ask ourselves as teachers. What learning experience are we going to imagine that would be worthy of the phenomenal tools of creation, exploration, and connection that we have been given at this time in history? 19th century assembly line education isn't going to cut it anymore.
