LTTA Digital Learning Team : Technology is a tool, how will you use it?

Changing how we live with technology, old school

Human beings have been making and using tools to help us survive and thrive since our earliest days.

Imagine what it must have been like for our first ancestors to have created a spark that caused a fire to glow in their midst. What a life changing moment in our human story. This new tool would allow them to warm themselves, cook food, see in the dark, protect themselves and on and on. The transitions in their lives would have been unthinkable before that moment.

Leap ahead a few hundred thousand years and new tools continue to be invented that make vast and unanticipated changes in how we live on a daily basis. In many cases, these new tools continue to help us with our most basic human needs: to keep warm, cook food and see in the dark, just like our ancient relatives.

Do the newest technology tools actually make a change at the most basic levels of how we live our lives?

My response would be in most cases no and if used properly, yes.

Do the tools change the task?

Most of our human needs for survival haven't shifted much since fire was discovered. We still need to eat, drink and be protected from the elements. It is one of my greatest pleasures to sit around a crackling fire to feel its warmth, cook a meal over it and tell stories into the night. That method of living is still the case for many people around the globe today. Given the choice though, I would like the option of flipping a switch to accomplish most of those tasks in a faster, more comfortable way for my daily life.

There are however, advancements in digital technology that go well beyond assisting with these simple comforts.

Let's consider technology tools in the way that they can impact our ability to share ideas and educate ourselves.

I think everyone would agree that digital tools have vastly expanded the speed and extent to which we can exchange information. But has the act of communication actually changed?

When early humans made paintings on cave walls about 40,000 years ago, was the impetus for the interaction the same as today when someone makes a tweet?

Were they each sending the message: "I'm here and this is what I want you to know..."

Of course this is an over-simplification in both cases, but I think that it sums up the core of the activity.

So if the essence of the communicative act is essentially the same, what is it that technology brings to it? By understanding the potential of the new digital tools and using them properly, we can answer that question.

Technology and Learning

I find that often within education contexts, there is a misconception that using digital technology is the learning itself. There is the assumption that as soon as you add technology, it equals acquired knowledge. It is never that simple.

Smart boards don't inherently make you smart.

Smart boards (and many other digital tools) can however be an excellent part of helping students learn and explore concepts in a hands on, digitally integrated manner. It is the way that you use a tool that makes it effective, not the tool itself.

We need to be careful not to leap into this digital trap of filling the classroom with technology that is not understood and used effectively.

The media arts can be really powerful tools for creating content to share ideas, communicate more clearly and vastly expanding the scope of who hears your message. The way to make all of this happen is to learn how to use these tools to their best advantage.

Consider how we use the tools that are currently available to us.

Are you getting the most out of your technology tools?

By watching that iPad cutting board video, you just participated in one step of an exchange of information in a form and on a scale that wasn't possible a few decades ago. When someone posts a video on youtube for millions to see, that expanded audience inherently increases the potential for impacting the thoughts and understanding of others. It can set off a chain of related communication activities that further the exchange and depth of knowledge on the topic.

By viewing the video online, posting a comment on it, reposting it in another online context such as facebook, tumblr, twitter etc. and creating a digital content inspired by it, users are taking that initial act of human sharing and expanding it into the digital realm.

This is an example of technology making a change in our human behaviour.

There are many challenges for effective implementation of digital technology in classrooms. One of the key issues Norbert Pachler, Professor of Teaching and Learning at the University of London, UK, states is “the lack of professional development focusing on pedagogical issues”*

Teachers need professional learning support if they are to be able to effectively ride the wave of digital technology that flood into their classrooms.

Learning Through the Arts has been a leader in the field of supporting teacher professional learning in arts based education for 20 years. LTTA’s new digital learning environment will expand the potential for more teachers to engage in using digital tools effectively.

When I lead a digital workshop with teachers or work in the classroom on a digital project with students, I want the participants to come away with an expanded capacity to learn and be creative using technology. I also want them to understand that technology is just one tool in their tool kit that may help them to accomplish their educational task. Learning how to use that tool effectively and in the appropriate context is the first step.