[Editor’s Note: The following letter was submitted on behalf of Bryan Luizzi, Ed.D, Principal, New Canaan High School.]
Without question, we have entered into a technological age that has changed the way we live, work, and learn. Thanks to the rapid explosion of personal, mobile devices and the seeming ubiquity of wireless coverage, we are now a part of an interconnected world – with its benefits and banes – no matter where we go. The rapidity of this infusion of mobile technology into our lives is unprecedented. Consider, for instance, that it took 75 years for the telephone to reach 50 million users; 38 years for Radio; television took just 13 years; and, remarkably, it took only 3 years for Apple to sell 67 million iPhones (MIT Technology Review, 2012). And that’s just the hardware! It’s equally important, and stunning, to consider the explosion of software distribution. Within 3.5 short years, Facebook reached 50 million people. Just recently, Angry Birds “Space” hit the same mark – in 35 days!
This ever-increasing access to mobile technology, coupled with the pace of change, presents incredible opportunities for our students and our schools. Using today’s technology, we are able to powerfully improve the educational experience for all of our students. As a result, we’ve begun to explore fundamental questions about the effective use of technology for learning. For instance, consider a classroom of students with mobile devices instead of a class textbook designed to last 8-10 years; given the fact that these students would have practically instantaneous access to the collected knowledge of the ages, we ask ourselves, how would the experience of teaching and learning be improved as a result?
Mobile technology in the classroom provides never-before access to information, and the skills required to locate, evaluate, and utilize this information are the keys to success. Instead of dispensing knowledge, in this technology enriched environment teachers are implementing instruction designed to prepare and empower students to ask, and answer, questions relevant to the discipline. In this environment, teachers are teaching students the skills necessary to be discerning consumers and responsible producers of information, and they are working as instructors, coaches, mentors, and guides. And all students are engaged, independently and collaboratively, in utilizing appropriate technology as they are researching, collaborating, creating, communicating, and evaluating relevant and meaningful works, within and across the disciplines. Classrooms are active, students are engaged, information access and knowledge creation is prized, and learning occurs everywhere, in real time, for everyone.
As we look to integrate today’s technological tools into classroom pedagogy and our school-wide environment, there are important questions we must keep in the forefront along the way. For instance, we must continuously reflect upon and evaluate our short and long-term goals to ensure they are aligned with our central mission. As we consider these questions, we continue to be inspired by the vast and powerful opportunities available to enrich the educational experience for our students, today and in the future. Through this process of reflecting, evaluating, planning, and implementing, we are continuously improving in our ability to differentiate instruction and personalize the learning experience as we prepare each of our students to excel in the dynamic and challenging world ahead.
The underpinnings of a first class learning environment for students in today’s mobile world are quite different from the requirements of yesterday’s classrooms. Currently, our network infrastructure is well designed for a world where a teacher plugs a computer or two into each classroom, sometimes uses the technology for instruction, and occasionally brings students to a separate, “computer-lab” environment, to perform various tasks. When it was first designed over a decade ago, that was “best practice” in schools. With today’s potential, it is inadequate, and our infrastructure is increasingly becoming an impediment to reaching our students’ educational goals.
As mobile technology has become integrated into our lives and technology has enriched the educational experience, the needs of the system have changed as well. Where a network of the past may have had to support a few hundred devices at any given time, today networks are required to simultaneously support thousands of devices. We are pushing data through the network, wired and wirelessly, at incredible speeds and with stunning frequency. In order to capitalize on the myriad opportunities for enhancing and enriching learning experiences for our students, we must begin by designing and implementing a network infrastructure that will support today’s needs, provide for tomorrow’s possibilities, and enable us to continuously improve in the future. Thus empowered, educators can create and leverage policies, protocols, and practices that make such a system meaningful and appropriate to our educational mission and community.
We are in the midst of a technological revolution that continues to change how we live, work and learn. By thoughtfully approaching these opportunities with the appropriate goals in mind, we can help ensure that the changes brought about by these new technologies are improvements that help all of our students excel, for today and tomorrow. By shifting from technology for instruction to technology for learning, we are encouraging and empowering students to be actively engaged in their own educational experience, and preparing them with the character, competence, and courage to positively impact the dynamic and unpredictable world ahead.