Adopting and Adapting

I recently read Mark Prensky's article "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom" and thought a great deal about the context and my ongoing reflective theme "why am I, a progressive, tech-savvy educator, both enthusiastic and resistant about many of these ideas"?

I don't disagree with Prensky's message. I do not suffer from what I like to call "pedagogical inertia". I do feel uncomfortable though but by what I cannot put a definitive finger on.

Prensky wonders that by 2100, "How close will we be to Edutopia?". This sets off certain cynical alarms, because as admirable as that pursuit is, it is highly unlikely that we will ever get there. My 15 year career as an educator has seen many phase shifts - cooperative learning, PBL, UBD etc to name a few. I find it highly unlikely that given a perfect one-to-one world with tech-competent educators delivering digitally integrated and enhanced curriculum that the coming of the educational Messiah will be celebrated and no one will ever think again on how to make it better. This smells with the essence of LaPlace's (foolish) boast (by knowing the initial conditions—the position and velocity of every particle in the universe—he could, in principle, predict the future with absolute certainty) - an obligatory physics/math connection that basically stated the demise of physics research.

Mark is right on though with his 4 step process of the typical adoption of technology in schools (or for that matter - industry and society in general)

1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways.

I like to think that most educators are well beyond "dabbling" - at least they are in the environment I work in (which too might affect my perspective - top tier international school vs public education in Fort McNowhere USA). So moving on to "doing old things in old ways", I don't disagree with Prensky's idea that "writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work digitally on the computer via email or instant messaging (is) in the category of doing old things (communicating and exchanging) in old ways (passing stuff around)." I do however strongly agree with Chris Betcher's "myth of the digital native" and don't necessarily believe our students are as technologically competent as we think they are (see my next post) and therefore a little more time to smell the roses in this area is necessary and from the perspective of a 41 year old digital immigrant, absolutely necessary.

Although idealists like Prensky are the necessary force that drive a necessary change, a more pragmatic approach than "if we don't do this yesterday, our students are screwed" is not educationally sound in the eyes of the 50 year old teacher that is the very focus of the "no teacher left behind" educational technology program explosion. Faced with a barrage of rapidly changing tech options in education (blogs - wikis - nings), often presented with little explanation at near light speed by techies spouting gobbledy (sp?) gook - it is no wonder that "digital immigrant" teachers (even tech competent ones like myself) are being resistant to change.

I see it and feel it. You want teachers on board (because as Prensky states digital immigrants present a huge social barrier to technological adoption), put away your 7 different gadgets (cool sure but I am not really impressed), stop speaking in tongues, and create plans in schools that shift mainstream thinking gradually. Graphically I see it like this:
This is the impression mainstream educators get in terms of what is expected from people like Prensky
This is my proposal for the required perception of expections that I think will really help dismantle those barriers people like Prensky talk about


What I like best about this article is Prensky's observation that not being one-to-one is the biggest obstacle for success. Put me on the line with the sign "we need more computers NOW". I firmly believe that tech adoption will be a jerky, inconsistent process until this happens. As a school director I would insist on directing the funding here first. Maybe we won't be doing new things in new ways intially and light year leaps in test scores will not occur but trying any kind of technological adoption without one-to-one is like teaching kids to write with shared pencils. The laptop (notebook) is the binder and pencil case of the present. No more excuses please Mr. Purse Strings, just do it!