Another one!!!

This is getting silly.

The International Educator, a wildly circulated professional newspaper has made the editorial decision to put this article on it’s front page with the above title.

If you read the article you will come across lines like:

“The students were told at the beginning of the course that they could bring their laptops to class to take notes if they wanted to but they would never NEED their laptops”

“You’d sit and watch the students and wonder, “What are they doing with their laptops?” You’s walk by other classes and see everyone playing solitaire.. I wanted to know, ‘Is this a problem?,” said Fried, a psychology professor at Winona State.”

To its credit the article goes on to add: “It’s just good classroom management. If you’re a good professor moving around your classroom, engaging your students, you don’t have those issues. Our best professors don’t see those issues.”

It is clear that pedagogy and instructional practice is the villan here and NOT the laptop. However my big issue with this article lies with the fact that TIE decided to lead the article with “Study finds laptops in class hinder learning.” Like our students, adults just read headlines, and this headline  actually refers to a college study. TIE is largely read by K – 12 educators and this article which really should be focusing more on the poor teaching practices of the these college professors will actually just provide one more “See I told you so !!” moment for some teachers to latch on to.

But what do I know?

I know that:
1) Good teaching , instructional strategies, and pedagogy leads to learning.

2) Good classroom management contributes to effective learning environments which affect student learning.

3)Technology is a tool that can enhance student learning but on it’s own will not guarantee it.

When you take number 3 and apply some number 1 some number 2 you get a classroom that is engaging, relevant to the lives of our students and possibly fun. All of these things are essential elements to learning.

Articles like this one just cause people to stop thinking.

I have written about this before. Here and here.

The tipping point for all of this is near.

Keep writing and keep reading and DON’T STOP THINKING and in time it will all fall into place.

I can feel it!