Saying “No”: The Mark of a Tech-Savvy Teacher
The tremendous comment thread on the next generation of teachers at Weblogg-ed got me to thinking about the value of experience in integrating technology in the classroom. I said it there and I’ll say again it here: more and more, I identify the most tech-savvy teachers by the technologies they reject and the reasons they offer as to why.
I don’t believe the skepticism and creativity are mutually exclusive. The best artists are oftentimes the harshest critics, especially when it comes to their own work. I see many teachers who use technology for the wrong reasons: the desire to “jump on the bandwagon” or lust for a shiny new toy. They fall in love with the tool and then invent instructional problems to “solve” with it. They go to a conference like NECC and are overwhelmed. They come home and say, “I have to start doing this” without knowing why.
The best teachers are the ones who tuck those experiences away in a journal, a filing cabinet, a corner of their very active brain. And they wait. They keep teaching, always looking for a better way to get through to their students. Every so often, a challenge or opportunity arises in the classroom and they go back to that toolbox- wherever it may be – and find appropriate solutions. To me, that’s a real master teacher: someone who is aware of the many ways to get through to kids, can understand their needs and deploy appropriate strategies to meet them.
Don’t get me wrong: good teachers are always learning about technology as well as many other things: their content area(s), assessment strategies, pedagogy, etc. The best, through years of experience in the classroom, develop that precious balance of creativity and skepticism. They say “no” a lot, but when they say “yes,” they embrace that “yes” and run with it… and the results are frequently stunning.
