Does Tech Enhance Student Learning?

When Trevor and I were deciding on which debate topic we were the most interested in, we kept coming back to a topic that at our core we both strongly agreed with - Technology Enhances Learning. However, we thought it might be interesting and helpful for us to select the side of this debate that would contradict our personal beliefs, and help us look at the issue from a different perspective. I'll admit at the beginning it was it a little hard to wrap our heads around this as every time we thought of a good argument, we naturally thought of a counterpoint from our own experience that would discredit the negative side. Also understanding how smart and experienced Amanda and Nancy are, we knew we had to dig deep to create an argument that would be counter their strong points on the pro side...or at least make them work a little bit before they ultimately crushed us! 

The Key Points

​While initially we had many ideas of how we could come at this topic, we eventually narrowed it down to three key issues that we felt would give us the best chance to defend our side: Distraction, Pedagogy and Screen Time.  

1.  Technology is a Distraction:

• ​It affords many opportunities and temptations for students to use technology for non-curricular means.  This includes the use of Social Media (such as Instagram or snapchat), Music (and switching songs), playing games, or viewing content on YouTube.
• The commercialization of the internet – many advertisements, banners, and recommended videos are hosted on websites that are being utilized for educational purposes. Many students do not understand the impact these ads are having on them.   
• Notifications and popups are created to take away your attention from tasks, which leads to less productivity and ultimately less learning in the classroom. 
• Algorithms are being utilized to distract us from our learning and take us towards products to purchase.   

2. Sound Pedagogy is the Foundation for Enhancement, not Technology:

• Technology can amplify the pedagogical methods of educators - it can make good teachers better but can make bad ones worse.  A good teacher with sound pedagogy will always find ways to enhance learning with or without technology. 
• If technology is not being used in the right way, there are limited benefits to students (I.e. substitution on SAMR model) 
• Cool "bells and whistles" are created as a hook for educators and students. This will often lead teachers to use resources or tools with minimal understanding of the pedagogy behind using them. 

3. School-Based Technology Overloads Students with Screen Time:

• Many students are already using technology in their own time (Netflix, Social Media, Youtube etc.), making students use technology all day for educational purposes (Google Classroom, Kahoot, Research etc.) is too much screen time. 
• Technology in schools is contributing to the technology addiction that exists among many of our young people.
• With increased technology we may be contributing to a dehumanization of the profession. The relationships between students and teachers suffer due to the increased focus on technology.    

The Opening Statement

Trevor and I mulled a few different directions that we could go with our opening statement, but since we felt that we were playing on the losing team, we decided to go the route that many politicians take when they are desperate to garner public support - Attack Ads. While we tried very hard to dig up dirt on our competition, they were just too honest and nice and we can up empty-handed... so we resorted to creating fake tweets (thanks to Amanda and Nancy for being such great sports with this!) and creating a dark tone for our video. We even ended up finding a "How to make an Election Attack Ad" video for creating your own smear campaign that helped us in making our video. Ultimately Trevor and I were very happy with how our video turned out and we had a lot of fun using WeVideo to make it.  ​Check it out below:

Overall, this was such an amazing experience and a really engaging way to both learn more about an important issue in Education Technology and start a dialogue from all perspectives. I feel like I have a far better understanding of the side of parents and fellow teachers who may be resistant to increased technology in the classroom. While my stance on the issue hasn't changed (technology has the potential to enhance learning), it was very beneficial for me to learn more about the other side, as tech integration isn't perfect and issues such as distraction and screen time are worth exploring within education.