In one short school year, my students have experienced just the tip of the iceberg as far as learning various Web 2.0 tools and the collaborative and higher-order thinking skills that come from using those tools; however, they have come a long way since the start of the year. For a lot of them, my class has been the first encounter they have had with Web 1.0, let alone Web 2.0. Let's just say that, before I could start using Google Docs, I had to teach some of them what Google was first. Also, mine was the first class they encountered where they had to routinely use e-mail as a mode of communication. Many lessons were learned concerning e-mail, such as how to attach a file to an e-mail rather than copying and pasting a 6-page Word document into the e-mail body, as well as learning how to send an e-mail that didn't look like a text message from which any remaining vowels had escaped and as if someone fell asleep on the ! and ? keys. (Click here to see my rules for e-mails.)
But those were the small lessons. Necessary lessons, but small. The big lessons came when teaching students how to re-learn how to learn using technology.
Some people think that plunking a computer in front of a student will make them automatically excited about learning; as if the technology itself is the missing catalyst to make the reaction of student plus learning proceed to yield education. Let me tell you emphatically that this is not the case. Not at all. Just because technology is in use does not mean students' brains are actively engaged in learning.
If you've read any of my previous posts, you know that my students come to me as a product of the "factory model" of education. They are trained that passive learning is how learning should be done. Sit back and watch the teacher do his/her job; memorize what the teacher thinks are the right answers; put enough right answers on assessments to collect enough points; repeat this process until they give you a diploma.
What my students learned this year was that, with the netbook in front of them, there could be no more passive learning. The paradigm of learning to which they had become accustomed was shifted.
By planning learning activities that were collaborative and that required them to use and develop their problem-solving skills, they were engaged in learning for the entire class period. They had to do the work of learning. They were learning necessary 21st century survival skills.
Do students still try to revert back into passive learning mode (what I now refer to as "glucose conservation mode")? Of course. If learning activities using technology aren't designed so they are truly collaborative (using collaborative Web 2.0 tools plus requiring students to interact face-to-face), a class that starts out talking, sharing, and typing will gradually devolve into silence, with students just quietly typing and/or staring at the netbook screen like 21st century technology zombies. Since I am in the business of teaching students how to think, not zombie-production, I am now very suspicious of silence. It tells me one of two things are going on: 1) The learning activity wasn't designed for sustained collaboration and I need to rework that activity, or 2) The students are choosing not to collaborate because that requires more work. In order to prevent #2 from happening, I often use basic classroom management techniques, like walking around and looking at what is on everyone's screen, or sitting with student teams that are reluctant to talk with each other and teaching them how to collaborate.
But the most important thing any 1:1 teacher needs to know in order to prevent digital zombies from occurring is this: Don't use technology all the time. While using technology is a fabulous tool to promote learning when used correctly, it is not the only tool that should be used for learning. Students tend to learn in three primary ways: by writing, talking, and drawing. While the writing can be accomplished through technology, the latter two are often better accomplished by going old-school some of the time. Have students discuss face-to-face, and evaluate how well they discuss with each other--in other words, hold them accountable for in-class collaboration. Have students huddle around a big sheet of butcher paper with some markers, and let them draw their understanding via concept maps, cartoons, and collages. Not only does this break the zombie-production life cycle, but it varies your instruction to keep students interested.
After a year of working with students and technology, the number one lesson I have learned is this: It's all about balance, and the technology should be used to help students learn--no using technology for technology's sake. You have to find the right balance between using technology to learn, and using other non-technology-based effective instructional practices. Together, this combination of old-school/new-school can be very, very powerful in terms of increasing student learning.