Board of Directors

Here we are at the end of another school year.  For me, it marks the end of my 37th year in education, and I still feel the excitement of the end (and of a beginning) of a school year.   My first seventeen years, I was an elementary and middle school teacher.  The last twenty years I have been working with instructional technology needs from our school board office.  So, I have seen a lot of changes in technology use in our schools through the years.

I remember my first use of computers in my classroom.  Back in the early 1980’s I found an Apple IIE computer sitting in the back of a library storage room.  I was told it had been in there a couple of weeks and the librarian was not sure what it was for. I asked if I could roll it into my classroom and my journey of technology integration began! I found a PrintShop application on a 5 ¼ inch disk that I used along with an ImageWriter II color printer to make a banner to hang outside my classroom.  Fellow colleagues saw the banner and they thought I was a computer genius!  

A year later, I transferred to a middle school and guess what I found in their library storage room! Yep, but instead of one, I found three Apple IIE computers.  No one was using them so I rolled them down to my room to use with my math classes.  I had some students that were struggling with multiplications facts. I had tried several strategies to motivate them, but we were not successful.  I found a piece of software where students would use a fire breathing dragon to answer multiplication questions by “breathing fire” on the correct math answers. Students learned their multiplication facts and I saw my first glimpse of how technology can make a difference with student learning!

Fast forward to today and the technology tools our students have access to have a come a long way from our Apple IIes and fire breathing dragons.  We now access the cloud with devices that are becoming more powerful and some cases, less expensive everyday.  We have augmented reality, virtual reality and the reality that everyone needs to be connected!  Technology can be seen everywhere in our world and within our schools.  Just because technology is there does not mean our students are better off now than they were thirty years ago when a few Apple computers were finding their ways into schools.  

The technology can make a difference in our students’ learning, but it is not enough.  The teacher is still the difference maker.  The instructional design provided by the teacher determines how the students will be using the technology.  Will instruction be student-centered?  Will students be able to collaborate, problem-solve, think critically, be creative and demonstrate the potential technology provides them?  When one looks in the classroom, is engaged learning taking place or is it just students sitting in front of devices?  Technology can make a difference, but the teacher is the difference! All of you that are blessed to work with students in our classrooms, take the time to learn ways to integrate technology so it can really make a difference in our students’ learning.  

I have seen the positive impact technology can have when the teacher facilitates instruction that taps into the potential of the students and the technology.  We have access to so many great resources and tools to help our students learn.  What a great time to be an educator!  I hope everyone has a great summer!  Thanks for all you do and I am off to go explore the Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe!

Tim Taylor is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and  Instructional Technology Supervisor for Shenandoah County Public Schools.

Members of the VSTE Board of Directors will be taking time to periodically share their ideas and passions with the VSTE membership. In this post, Board Member Tim Stahmer muses on the meaning of instructional technology. 

A primary mission of VSTE is, of course, to help empower educators to make great use of technology for teaching and learning. Many of our members even have “instructional technology”, or some variation on the phrase, in their job title.

But what exactly is “instructional” technology? As opposed to another variety of tech, like the 1977 Ford Pinto.

Ask around and you'll probably get many different answers to that question, but, since this is my post, here is my twitter-length definition:

That would exclude the student information system many teachers use every day. Certainly the online grade book, attendance system, and other tools in most SIS packages is an essential part of classroom management. But it’s not used by students in any part of their learning.

We also drop the learning management system (LMS) many districts provide for their teachers. Think Blackboard, Edmodo, or Google Classroom. Also not “instructional” technology.

I suppose you could make the case that students might use parts of some LMS directly for their learning (a blogging tool, for example). But that’s not how they are commonly used. Most LMS function as organizational and distribution systems for content pushed to students, again to improve classroom management.

Also not “instructional”: response tools (Kahoot, Socrative), interactive whiteboards, video tutorials (Khan Academy), and a long, long list of curriculum games. Although I’ve seen a few (very few) special cases, student interaction with these resources is almost always as consumers, responding to material provided by publishers and teachers, not using them as creators.

And for me, that is the fundamental component for any technology to be considered instructional: control. When I say “directly by students”, I expect them to have some meaningful control as to how the technology - device, software, website, whatever - is used in the learning process.

So, what would I consider some examples of “instructional” technology?

That word processing program most students use would count, but only if they have some decision about what they will write. It would be even better if their writing was connected to the web, allowing them to present their ideas to a larger, more meaningful audience. One without a red pen.

We could include one of those slide show presentation programs, but only if the student has some control over the content. And again, let’s extend that control and let them determine the tools that will allow them to best explain their ideas to an audience beyond the walls of their classroom.

Then there are the devices that many students bring to school everyday, the ones that too many of their teachers still consider as the antithesis of “instructional”. Beyond providing access to vast amounts of information, those so-called phones are also powerful creative tools that can be used to record, edit, and distribute still images, audio, and video. Tools students can use in many, many ways to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and learning.

Of course, all of the above is only my opinion. But what do you think? How would you define "instructional technology" (or it’s shorter, equally vague sibling “edtech”)? Tweet your ideas to @timstahmer and @vste and let’s have that conversation. Or post a longer comment to this post on my blog.

Because in the end, the terminology we use when discussing these issues - with our colleagues, the community, legislators - does matter. We must be very clear when advocating for the use of technology in our schools and why it makes a difference for students.

Tim has been helping educators make better use of technology for teaching and learning at his website AssortedStuff since the turn of the century. He also loves to connect with interesting people on Twitter and is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and serves on the conference committee.