Can I Imagine Teaching Without Technology?
Updated: April 11, 2004
Temporarily unwired, I count the ways my classroom would change
By Brenda A. Dyck
"Sorry, teachers won't have any computer access for 6-8 weeks." This startling information came as a result of my school moving into a larger, 1950s facility. The new location contained none of the infrastructure necessary for a fully networked learning environment, so while they wired, we waited.
For someone who views technology integration as natural as breathing, being thrust into a technology-free teaching zone was almost beyond my comprehension. Over the past four years I had come to view technology as an effective tool that equips educators to do what they have always done, but with more efficiency and punch. In the spirit of John Lennon's "Imagine", I found myself trying to picture all the ways teaching would be different without technology.
Imagine going back to communicating with paper.
After relying on the Microsoft Outlook to schedule staff meetings and parent conferences, and to store important information, I would be back to managing the paper trail that is part of a complex organization. My mailbox and desktop would be brimming with loose paper.
Imagine being limited by your own teaching ideas.
Since I routinely search the Web for the best teaching ideas it has to offer, being "off the grid" would prove a rude awakening. Stuck for innovative, thought-provoking ideas, I might be forced to dash next door in hopes that my teaching partner might bail me out!
Imagine having to depend on pictures from books to convey the mystique of distant locations or events.
Without the Internet, virtual tours would be a thing of the past. For example, no longer would my students be able to move through the catacombs behind the ageless Western Wall, to see a totally live view of the wall, or leave a message of their own at its virtual location.
Imagine excluding telecollaborative learning from your curriculum.
Instead of partnering with classrooms from such far off places as Alaska, Ireland and Canada, I would need to settle for collaborating with the Grade 8 teacher across the hall. Not such a terrible thing...until my students want to know a little something about the world outside our community.
Imagine never having the opportunity to interact online with well-known authors or other famous people.
What a shame to miss chat room experiences like "The ReadIn", an online event where 23 well-known children's authors appear online to answer questions from students from all over the world!
Imagine the restriction of getting all research information from outdated encyclopedias or a limited number of books.
After having up-to-date research and information at our fingertips, this would definitely put student research projects behind the times. There would be a decline in the resources available to use for the "teachable moments" that occur during news breaking events or for unexpected spin-offs of lessons. These were times when the "wired" teacher could immediately grab the synergy of the moment, and provide quality online links for students to do further study.
My escape into "imagineering" made me very grateful that my technology-free school is a temporary situation. Technology has become so commonplace that we almost forget it has not always been this way. How far we've come!
RESOURCES
Microsoft Outlook
A tool that helps manage your e-mail communication, important information and planning.
Virtual Tour of the Western Wall
ReadIn 2002
The Read In Foundation, Inc. exists to promote and encourage global literacy and the use of telecommunications technology in education.
