During our weekly EDTECH class at uVic we had the opportunity to listen to Jesse, his website can be found here: https://www.mediatedreality.com/

I found the talk to be insightful on the powerful tool that technology is and the social context of technology and how it affects students and teachers. Perhaps the most thought provoking analogy (not claiming its a fair analogy) was comparing a teacher removing a phone in a classroom to a police office taking your phone for speeding. This really raises the question of the role of teachers and education. Education is not a parental guide on rules you need to follow, its a safe place first and foremost, and then beyond that it is a place where students can improve their thinking skills so they’re able to pursue the lives they want. The difference between a police officer and a teacher, is if you (an adult) were pulled over for speeding, it would be an adult to an adult, that is to say you can fully comprehend the consequences of your actions. A 12 year old student in grade 8 might not be able to fully understand the consequence of using his phone as a way to escape learning. This student can not understand the importance of the curriculum, or why they might benefit from having this learning opportunity. Now imagine you are in high school classroom and you have an adult learner whos returning to finish and graduate, now the example is the same, it would be mind boggling to ask for the adult students phone so that it doesn’t distract them. This is because the adult student (beside significant cognitive impairments) would fully understand the repercussions of their actions. This is an example of being informed, the age at which people can be considered informed varies for different areas of life as the government has declared. Education is mandatory, we are already assuming these students are unable to know why education is (fully) important, or else it wouldn’t’ be mandatory and students wouldn’t need to go to school.

Jesse also proposed the idea that technology is like a river and rather than trying to dam the river it is best to try and divert the stream into the direction you want it to go. I agree that technology isn’t going away, but I think its naïve to think that there won’t be any improvement in the areas of teaching that aren’t focused on technology. The physical environment can be improved, the teachers skills can increase, the curriculum can become focused and personal, and even improved understandings of how humans learn i.e. psychology may be able to inform what best practice is. Is technology a tool that aids overall learning or is it a tool that makes up for the lack of resources and helps teachers manage workloads? Is it required that a teacher gets their student to use technology if there is a one on one teacher student environment? I would be surprised if this hypothetical where every child can have a one on one teaching experience that technology use would increase. I would suspect it would be the opposite, the tools that technology offers teachers seem to be aimed at crowd control, and an ease of execution rather than a discrete increase in student outcomes. Given that we don’t live in hypothetical I understand the power of technology but still don’t think it necessary.

I will beg the philosophical question of teaching, that is why are we teaching students: is the role of the teacher to normalize students into a society that we are in or predict we will be in, or in the or to give them the critical thinking skills to thrive in the world they want to be in. I concede that many students would like to become familiar and even experts at using technology so that they can continue using technologies to live their lives.

The teacher’s role in the classroom is to make sure that there are effective learning opportunities for students, and those opportunities are requiring technology more and more but perhaps this increase is an increase in workplace productivity and by proxy the bottom line. If technology allows students to require less space and staff to learn there is an economic incentive to move towards the adoption of technology in classrooms.

Overall I appreciate the energy and enthusiasm Jesse brought and how thought provoking his talk was, I think it was difficult for him to ground out many of the reasons why he thinks the way he does, and I have hesitancy listening to his words as authority but I respect his experience and knowledge.

Cover photo by Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash