Tech Happens 1

Tech Happens:

Increasing Efficacy Trough Purposeful Implementation

Robert J. Selzler

Educational Technology 501

Dr. John Thomson PhD

May 5, 2011

Tech Happens 2

Technology happens; it has permeated the society in which we live and will continue to

permeate the society in which we live. It is no surprise, then, that technology has become a natural part

of the education system. Students will bring in their brand-new iPhones, sneak to library to check their

Facebook messages, and rely heavily upon online Spark Notes when writing essays. All of these things

have happened without—indeed often against—the permission of the community of professional

educators. To wit, students rarely ask permission and are often denied when they do. Educators can be

an exceptionally technophobic lot for a group that values learning and change. To be sure, professional

educators must be willing to address technology, or technology will certainly shape our schools.

Technology will happen, and we must be willing to use this to our and, ultimately, our students’

advantages.

Learning is, by definition, change. Of all the professionals to be scared of change, educators are

the least likely. Why then, are schools so slow to embrace change in education? Why are teachers often

shy of incorporating new technologies into classroom curricula? Certainly, there are valid reasons to be

conservative in education. Many teachers have a “once-bitten, twice-shy” attitude toward radical

changes. Regardless of the reasoning, teachers must confront the burgeoning technological

environment in classrooms. According to Michael Spector, AECT President (2010), the chief concern of

educational technology is whether it “will result in improved learning” (p. 6). Spector no doubt shares

this concern with the bulk of the community professional educators; educational research is a field that

has been long on promises and short on results, and teachers know it. Programs abound that promise to

do everything from increasing standardized score to increasing student involvement. As we address the

issue of technology in schools, we must not forget that the end goal is increased learning. We must be

sure that we harness technology to become a blessing to our students rather than a burden. Change is

inevitable; progress is not.

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All of this is prefaced by the fact that technology will become an increasing given. According to

the Pew Research Group, Millennials, the age-group of students who currently populate schools, are

increasingly in a socio-economic bracket that can make use of technology. In 2009, nearly 54% of

Millennials live in a suburb, which is an increase of over twenty percent from 1963. Average household

income, adjusted for inflation, has increased from $41,000 in 1960 to nearly $60,000 in 2009. This

concentration of population and income has certainly brought with it a new kind of media integration

into the social and educational lives of students. These students are weaned on electronic media, so it is

not great surprise that they are also uniquely engaged by it. The demographics and tendencies of this

new group of learners demand that we cannot sit passively by and let technology define itself in our

schools. We must take the initiative to properly design, research, and, most importantly, implement new

technologies. Our students are already using advanced technologies in every other area of their lives;

the intentional use of technology in learning is only the next logical step for education as a social

science.

This inevitability of student involvement with technology need not be a negative proposition. In

fact, when harnessed, this raw trend is rife with possibility. Robert Reiser, Instructional Systems

professor at Florida State University (2001) believes that the coming years will yield “greater changes in

instructional practices than the media that preceded them” (p. 62). This sort of rational optimism is not

just ideal, it is necessary for our schools to be able to meet the needs of twenty-first century learners. If

we are to make use of the technological trends in student populations, outcomes must be a priority, and

outcomes follow changes in practice.

In order to make the best use of technology integration, we have to be aware of what is going

on technologically with student populations. It is with this principle in mind that we must identify what

programs students are using. We do this to identify the best place to start, so that students are already

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literate in whatever program we choose to integrate. Overwhelmingly, the most popular type of student

involvement is through Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. These technologies

focus on the social aspect of the internet, and they engage users one with another. Students can use

true social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, to collaborate and communicate with teachers, and

they can use resource sharing sites, like YouTube, to be able to produce and publish multimedia

projects. These types of technology are quite useful to educational implementation because, like

education as a discipline, they rely upon social principles to function effectively. Aside from the obvious

benefits, there is also a fiscal benefit: they are often free of charge.

Converting these technologies to the classroom is easier than it might seem. The fact that

technology is already integrating itself is the main reason—remember, technology happens. The rise of

technological literacy in contemporary generations is a burgeoning research field. Amongst these

researchers are Dimitri Christakis and Frederik Zimmerman. Christakis and Zimmerman (2009) approach

technology from a “media optimization” standpoint and call into question the efficacy of lab-based

studies which “inherently tell us very little about real-world behaviors and effects” (p. 1181, 1182). This

is a distinctly positive viewpoint for a classroom teacher. Rather than approaching integration with

sweeping reforms and a one-size-fits-all approach, this viewpoint would give a certain degree of liberty

to teachers while still focusing on outcomes of choices made. Truly, this is a best-of-both-worlds

solution that blends freedom with standards. It also is distinctly suited to Millennials, who are used to

custom tailoring their media-driven experiences to suit their needs: again, this can only be considered a

win-win situation.

Similarly, there is another touchstone that is potent, rarely-used, and profitable for engagement

of Millennials: games. Educational games offer a unique type of engagement that teachers and students

both crave: fun. Typically, there are four different types of games: simulations, which are “designed to

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reflect reality;” games, which are “competitive activity with a prescribed setting;” simulation-games,

which are “reality-base” games; and exercise, which “structured, non-competitive, *and+ experiential”

(Allery 2004, p. 504). Students are familiar with these types of games, and are regularly playing them

outside of school. Simulations are indeed powerful; the U.S. Army has even backed the creation of a

wartime simulation. It is with this sort of potency in mid, that we must explore the usage of games and

simulations in a classroom setting. Students are already literate in this media, and it would be unwise to

ignore those implications; technology has happened.

Aside from the structure and media literacy that is already in place amongst young people,

games offer other, excellent opportunity to savvy educators. Games excel at promoting two things:

cooperation and engagement. Since Piaget revolutionized educational thought, cooperation and

collaboration have been hot-ticket items in the world of emerging pedagogy. Games offer a medium

that is greatly suited to this sort of pedagogy. Students can work together, either cooperatively or

competitively, to reach a goal. All the while, they might be accomplishing challenges and immersing

themselves in content which otherwise might not seem interesting. Similarly, the level of engagement is

necessarily increased with video games. By definition, a video game is multimedia; that is, it engages

participants at multiple levels of sensory involvement. This sort of medium is paramount to

differentiated instruction.

However, with great power, it is said, comes great responsibility. Educators must be careful to

not to let games become a crutch. Sadly, many students will only ever experience games as fillers, but

implementation of games into the school curriculum must never become ancillary; it must become an

intentional, structured experience with achievable objectives. It must not just happen, but must be

purposeful.

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To be able to implement properly, “a new design paradigm implemented,” Gunter, Kenny, and

Vick, professors at the University of Central Florida (2007) insist. This sort of paradigm would include

four parts: attention, relevance, confidence and challenge, and satisfaction and success. Games would

have to be able to “capture their interest,” or attention; “meet… learner’s needs,” or relevance; build

“positive expectation for success,” or confidence; and “provide meaningful opportunities,” or

satisfaction (p. 511-221). By following a systematic model for design, we can make sure that a certain

level of consistency that ensures that standards are met: efficacy rather than willy-nilly, unpredictable

results.

Technology integration can certainly be a daunting task. This is certainly something of which we

must be aware, but it is not an excuse to remain ineffective. To be able to meet the needs of twenty-

first-century learners, we must adapt our pedagogies to effectively engage our students. We can be sure

of one thing: they are going to be using technology in their out-of-class lives. If we take this for granted,

then we are left with one of two options; we can either fight technological encroachment into our

classrooms tooth and nail, or we can embrace change and use technology to suit our objectives. We

must never lose sight of the principle that change is inevitable; progress is not.

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References

Allery, L. A. (2004). Educational games and structured experiences. Medical Teacher, 26, 6, 504-505

Christakis, D., & Zimmerman, F. (2009). Young Children and Media. American Behavioral Scientist, 52, 8,

1177-1185.

Gunter, G., Kenny, R., & Vick, E. (2008). Taking educational games seriously: using the RETAIN model to

design endogenous fantasy into standalone educational games. Educational Technology

Research and Development, 56, 5-6.

Pew Research Center (May 10, 2011). Millennials: A portrait of generation next. Retrieved from

http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf

Reiser, R. A. (2001). A History of Instructional Design and Technology: Part I: A History of Instructional

Media. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49, 1, 53-64.

Spector, M. J. (2010). Educational Technology and Change. TechTrends, 54, 6-7.