On Technology

I think that most teachers at some point in their career have heard the line, "technology boosts grades in the classroom." And, while that phrase can be true, I think that it requires a caveat at the end: "technology boosts grades in the classroom, provided that the teacher knows how to actually use it."

As with waiting, technology isn't easy. It requires a new way of approaching problems, and a new mindset. Unfortunately--both for most people older and younger than the cohort I grew up with--technology is not always intuitive. In other words, dear reader, please read that Tron lied, and technology will not give you easy to use superpowers.

A quick note on the, "younger" comment above: most students do not know how to use technology, they know how to be entertained by technology. Yes, compared to those with more gray hair than myself, their ability to take selfies, text, and watch a clip of a soccer goal--all while combing their hair, driving, and causing insane accidents in their wake--can seem magical. Mysterious. Almost...dare I say it...super human! But, ask them to do something with HTML--or, even worse, what WWW stands for--and many will give you the, "why on earth would you ever think that trivality is important, you incompetent nitwit," look.

First, some ideas of what to do with technology in a classroom:

1. Let there be an asymmetric perspective between what you are saying, and what's on the screen. If you only ever read off of the power-point, everything will be boring as heck, your students may feel insulted, and you'll only ever engage the students with the material in one way. By taking a more asymmetric approach, students will be able to engage with the material in more than one way, the show can be the main points while you can clarify/ go deeper, and I can guarantee that lessons will be more interesting for the students.
2. Do approach technology as something more than just an electronic whiteboard. The power of a computer is so much more than just a fancy whiteboard. It can look up information, change text on the fly, show videos, transport students halfway around the world, talk with almost anyone else in the world, play games, and almost any number of things imaginable. Explore what it can do for you, and you may be surprised by just how far it can take you.
3. Let technology be a shared experience. How can you get students to use their technology in a positive way in the classroom? How can you model good digital citizenship? How can you help your students to understand that their phone is more than a magical picture-taking box? The questions are endless, but so are the solutions.
4. Documentation. What should a teacher be constantly doing? Documenting and taking data. We're kind of like scientists, if bacteria could flip you the bird one second and call you the greatest teacher ever the next. Digital devices have a multitude of ways to document what's going on in class. You can take pictures of groups to remind you who belongs where, or pictures of projects to show parents what their child is doing in class. You can use voice recorder to capture conversations or discussions. You can take videos of presentations to re-watch later to either a) grade, or b) let students self assess. You can even put all of these together on a classroom blog or photo album to always remember the year together. No longer will you have to write everything down, let the computer do it for you.
5. Use technology as support for students who need additional scaffolds. Say, for example, that you have a student who can barely write. If you hook them up with voice capture technology--which, depending on how much it needs to be trained, can be fairly inexpensive--then they can write down their ideas without needing to pick up a pencil. Or, say that you have a student who is actively distracted by noise around them. Hook them up with headphones connected to a microphone you have on, and suddenly they can pay attention to every word that you say. Some students even need a brain break. Have a section of the room open for students to self monitor with some quick activities they can play while they reset. There are lots of opportunities.
6. Do teach a little bit of coding. It doesn't have to be anything fancy like HTML or Python--though I would like to say that HTML is here to stay, coding languages tend to rise and fall in popularity--but teaching kids coding helps them to understand how a computer works. A computer is, in essence, a perfect logic machine. It will only do what you tell it to do, know what you let it know, and believe what you want it to believe. By understanding this fundamental aspect of computers, students gain an idea about the basics of the apps they use as well, and gain a little practice thinking about logical sequences on the sly.

Second, some great resources:

1. Wikipedia: How many classrooms have banned Wikipedia? I don't know, but the reason's always the same: it's untrustworthy. Well, last time that I checked, that's a learning opportunity right there. Give students a Wikipedia article, and ask them to do a few things with it: 1) What parts are facts, and what parts are opinions? 2) How trustworthy would you say the sources are? 3) What biases can you see in the article? You can even use Wikipedia as an example of the stupidity of pedantics (the great editing war of, "Star Trek Into Darkness," vs, "Star Trek into Darkness" is a fine example), and--as a great way to practice reading for key words/ related words--have them play Wikipedia Golf (give the class an article to get to, and have them start with a random search. The person who gets to the target article in the fewest number of clicks wins). I've also found Wikipedia to be a great jumping off point for research, although not the best play to do all of the research.
2. Word Reference: A great translation tool if you are looking for a specific word in English or a romance language. It's even available on most smart phones.
3. Google Translate: *Gasp*, not the dreaded Google Translate! This site is notorious for it's mistranslated ("Yo reloj la tele" [I wrist-watch the television]), so I definitely don't recommend it for that. Rather, I like using it as a reverse-translator. Whenever I write something in a foreign language--particularly a sentence--I like to translate it back into English. With about 99.98% accuracy, if the resulting sentence doesn't quite make sense, then I've written it wrong.
4. Google Maps Street View: Are you talking with your students about the Taj Mahal? Open up Google Maps Street View and go there. Did you talk about the Alhambra in your Spanish class? Go and take a little tour. Wishing for warm, sandy beaches on a cold, cold day? Mele Kalikimaka is just a brain break away.
5. Google Docs: Excellent for both individual and group projects, you can see what students are doing while they are doing it. 
6. Pinterest: This one almost didn't make the cut because I don't use it, but I've heard great things from people who do. Basically, many of the best masters steal all of their best work, then make it their own. Why not start here?
7. YouTube: This is a great way to share videos. It's also a fantastic way to offer kids a summary of what they did that day to use either for review, or if they missed a day and don't want to fall too far behind. Using it to create a flipped classroom can also be nice...provided not everyone does it.

Lastly (because I prefer to look at things in the positive) some things not to do with technology in the classroom (note: These are largely a rehash of the above, but from a different point of view):

1. Don't read off your Power Point slide/ Google Doc/ what have you. Please, just...don't. I can read. By the time Power Point becomes a main tool in your repertoire, most of your students should be able to read. If you need help remembering, then use flash cards. If you read off of a slide, then you're a) insulting your students by implying that they can't read, b) wasting your student's time, because why should they listen to you when they can just read it?, and c) doing the students a monumental disservice. By reading off of the show, you're only giving your student one perspective of--and one explanation for--the material you are covering. By using a more asymmetric approach (and not writing in complete sentences) you'll be more likely to reach a wider variety of students who might need things explained in different ways.
2. Don't just use the projector like it's a fancy whiteboard, because then you'll only think of it in terms of what a whiteboard could do. Your computer can do so much more than just be written on, so please use it to your advantage.
3. Don't just think of technology as a teacher thing. Think about how to integrate it in a way that your students could use it.
4. Don't (read, DON'T) spend an entire semester/ year teaching kids how to type. Even those of use who know how to type have usually fallen into a slightly different mode, and most kids who don't learn how to type develop a system that works plenty fast for them. Teaching typing is utterly unnecessary, and focuses students to think about the use of technology, instead of the underlying mechanics that would make them really fun to use. Although, not everyone agrees with me (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/425018/out-of-touch-with-typing/).

To recap: technology is as amazingly creative as a student who has just realized they utterly forgot to do the essay due today and don't want to admit it. Use it well, and students can grow. Use it poorly and...well, it might be better to just stick with a whiteboard.