Can planning and technology end student ambivalence?

Students, or children and adolescents in general, possess the amazing ability to summon the dark lord of ambivalence on a whim. This evil spirit has been responsible for the downfall of some of the most well planned, inspiring lessons in the history of education. Well-scaffolded units, tied to prior knowledge and student interests, that offer student choice, and various levels of collaboration and interactivity, are not even immune to the powers of this curricular succubus.

In much of what is written about on the internet, it might seem that technology is here to banish the paralyzing poltergeist of inner contradiction from classrooms for eternity; however, personal experience is proving that the potential is there, but without methodical planning the reality is often wishful thinking.

Technology is evolving at an unfathomable speed. Since the dawn of MTV-style editing, the brains of children have been trained to expect information, and the systems that deliver it to them, to evolve (some may say devolve) into compelling, ever-changing, ever-quickening formats. As a result, educators are under increasing pressure to adapt to the dynamic cognitive conditioning of each year's new batch of students.

With that understanding it is important to accept that the inclusion of technology in the classroom is not nearly enough to keep ambivalence at bay. In fact, ill-planned activities that employ technology can often increase ambivalence as it confuses students by forcing them to choose between what they know they need to do and what they want to do. As a result, many students end up doing next to nothing.

Consequently, it is essential to have a planned evolution for integrating technology into teaching units, individual lessons, and daily activities. An effective example to examine is student blogging. Having students blog, on say a weekly basis, will initially be interesting and exciting for many students as it might be their first exposure to publishing ideas online. (Kidblog.org is a free blogging site that provides various levels of teacher control essential to ensuring safe respectful online interactions)

Nevertheless, within several weeks most students will find it routine, just as they have previously done throughout their academic careers with activities such as worksheets, essays, PowerPoints, and Jeopardy review games. And once routine enters the room, so does its sidekick ambivalence. That is where technology integration offers significant benefits, as it provides a wide variety of authentic evolutionary pathways for a given project.

In the case of blogging, it is advisable to plan a growth process such as the one outlined below. For the sake of simplicity, assume the duration of each step to be two weeks.

• Have students simply blog in "free-write" form in order to become comfortable with blogging
• Begin requiring students to comment on the blogs of at least two of their classmates
• Have students individually commit to an ongoing theme for their respective blog
• Begin requiring at least one relevant visual per blog post
• Begin requiring at least one relevant link (embedded within the text) to supporting information
• Develop a partner classroom at another school and connect with their blogs for commenting 
• Work with the partner teacher to facilitate connections between individual students or student groups
• Develop a digital collaborative project between student pairs or student groups between partnered classrooms.

In planning the evolution of a project such as this, students will be regularly challenged with a well-scaffolded routine, that is more likely to keep them engaged as they see the path of the project heading toward an authentic product that reaches beyond traditional classroom walls, and is probably quite different than what they have experienced in most of their previous academic environments.

Additionally, establishing a preliminary understanding of desired progress, creates an environment in which time frames and activities can be easily adjusted, adapted, or embellished, as the learning environment dictates. 

With the current pace of edtech ideas, strategies, platforms, apps, and websites overwhelming teachers, administrators, and districts alike, it is often tempting to try too much too soon, or in some cases nothing at all. In order to avoid both ends of that spectrum and to begin developing successful technology driven curriculum, some good old fashioned planning can simplify the process and help teachers begin the exorcism of ambivalence from their respective classrooms.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33