Dear Editor,
What does a teenager spend most of their time doing? Are they outside playing? Are they reading books? I think that most would agree that teenagers spend the majority of time on their phones. They read on their phones. They communicate and form social relationships on their phones. Therefore, the question is why do the vast majority of schools continue to prevent students from using their phones as an effective learning tool? France recently banned the use of cell phones in its schools.
Some may argue that it makes cheating easier and can be used in bullying where students post pictures of teachers or other students in compromising positions. I would argue that these exact incidences are the perfect moments to teach students responsible use of technology and social media etiquette. Yet most schools are stubbornly opposed.
Education by its nature tends to continually dwell in the past. Let’s face it. Teachers are largely trained by books which by press time have already become obsolete. Teachers take on their duties in the classroom when they are much older. Yes, they may be wiser but have usually lost track of the trends that are central to their students’ lives. Consequently, the education industry lives outside the reality of students. It holds at its foundation an embrace of the past.
The use of technology is so misplaced in schools that the whiteboard is now the advanced chalkboard. The smartboard is mainly used as a glorified whiteboard in most schools. The sad thing is that most schools still consider these tools to be absolutely essential to education. However, students spend the majority of their leisure time not staring at a board but looking at a screen. How boring must the whiteboard or even the smartboard look compared to the moving images on the screen; a screen that can be touched and it responds.
Heavy book bags are still a common sight. Imagine students being trained to use the smartphone as their book bag. Imagine teaching students to be responsible learners where they carry Google Classroom everywhere they go and engage in quiz games using Quizizz while in the mall or riding in the school bus. Imagine training our students to use their smartphones not as mindless infinite scrolling tools but primarily as a research tool.
I was amazed when some of my new students told me that they had Googled me. This means that their natural research method is already Google. Students are already entrapped in the age of Google and are begging to be taught by these methods.
How can a generation who learnt to find the meaning of a word by using a dictionary adapt to students who use Google for the same purpose? Sometimes the self-righteousness and nostalgia of the past can lead a teacher to argue that the student must learn to use a dictionary because it is “just better.” What if there is no Internet? This argument is like saying that years after the automobile was being used, we should have continued to teach people to ride horses, just in case the car broke down. Education must evolve to meet the realities of the future because that is what students are being prepared for.
Most schools demand that student use notebooks. However, our students rarely write outside of the classroom. They type. They use the note-taking apps in their phones. They are already used to texting upwards of 40 words per minute. Why not build on this natural skill? Why not teach them how to organize and store their notes in the cloud?
The simple answer is that we do not know how. We are blinded and scared by the rapidly changing technologies and retreat to our comfort zone – the method that we learned. What an opportunity lost. If the full power of today’s technology was harnessed, students could simply use the classroom for face to face clarity on topics that they desire.
Imagine your teenager constantly on their phone. But not simply gossiping with friends but discussing sections of the curriculum with friends. Imagine your son on YouTube. But not simply watching music videos but researching the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
Students will responsibly learn how to use technology. Isn’t this the role of education? To teach students to be responsible adults? Then how can this be done if technology is not utilized in the classroom – if students are not taught to automatically use technology to search for answers?
We have done away with encyclopaedias and have made the power of instant research available to everyone. This is a valuable resource that is not being used to its full potential in schools.
A classroom can consist of a teacher presenting a problem. Students then research that problem inside or outside of class. The students then evaluate their sources, present it in class to their peers and the teacher. The teacher is simply responsible for guidance and the clearing up of misconceptions. The job of the teacher truly becomes that of coach whose job is to direct learning and steer it in the right direction.
The building of critical thinking skills is key. There is no real need to store knowledge in the brain. There is a greater need to be able to evaluate sources of information for accuracy and to be able to use that information to construct new ideas. The current structure of schools does not encourage this. However, acceptance of the smartphone will greatly facilitate this.
Delroy Pierre
