by Sister Mary Thomas, O.P., Principal
As I have been interviewing prospective students this winter, I often meet them in the lobby to visit informally first to help them relax and simply share a bit of themselves. One student showed me how to send a text message. Another showed me her amazing skill in navigating a phone that has an entire keyboard. Technology is part of every student’s life. Meeting with the perspective students highlighted for me our responsibility as educators to answer the question of how best to use technology to advance not only the educational process but also to foster the growth of the whole person. Thus, the educational focus should not be on teaching students how to use technology – because they already know how – but rather, when and how to use technology to support relationships, not inhibit them.
Many published articles decry the amount of time wasted on e-mails and Internet surfing as the major reasons not to use technology in the form of laptops in the classroom. But children have always doodled and written notes to classmates since the time of Plato. I would put forward that effective uses of technology has a much deeper principle than simply eliminating distraction. Technology can be used most effectively to build a learning community, the proven factor of greatest impact on student learning.
At St. Cecilia Academy, we have developed an approach for using technology as a source for integrated and expanded learning, one that builds and extends the student/teacher relationship. Although the educational research has not conclusively validated the effectiveness of laptop programs, (See sidebar on research.) it does indicate that other uses of technology can clearly deepen and enhance the quality of instruction and foster more penetrating discussion between the members of a class.
Technology is not most effective when used to isolate girls in their own cyberworlds as they work alone on a PC or a laptop. One vivid example that stands out in my mind is an example of a computer classroom arranged with students’ backs to the teacher so the instructor can see the computer screens. This may work for a computer class which is not necessarily discussion based. But for those classes that are, the best educational evaluation tool ever designed is still the human face. Young people first register understanding or confusion on their faces. Teachers first find the next direction needed for a dynamic discussion by scanning the students’ faces. We should not turn our backs on this tool in favor of technology.
A basic principle seems to be that the student/teacher relationship is the key to student learning. Technology needs to be placed at the service of that relationship, and not serve as an obstacle to it. It should build the instructional community, and not divide it into 15 parallel paths, all separately downloading images and information. At St. Cecilia Academy, we believe that tools such as smartboards and LCD projectors create a focal point for a discussion in the classroom. It is here that technology can bring students out of themselves to become a larger part of a dynamic classroom where learning is taking place.
With the addition of LCD projectors and smartboards in each of the classrooms at St. Cecilia, teachers are using them in a multitude of ways to increase student interaction in the classroom. In the natural history class, Sr. Julia Marie, O.P., is having the students create their own version of an online encyclopedia, in which students create pages about animal species and trees on campus. Students comment on and learn from each other’s research in this on-going project. Eventually it will serve as part of the textbook used in the course as well. The classroom is also virtually paperless, as students turn in homework via e-mail or using flash drives.
Mrs. Becky Simon, veteran science teacher at St. Cecilia, uses technology to greatly enhance the ability of students to visualize concepts through demonstrations, animations, and virtual labs available online now. Ten or 15 years ago, she used diagrams from books to explain chemical reactions and biological events such as cell division. Now through online resources, she can show the process of mitosis or the splitting of an atom in action.
Technology is not limited to the science department. An increasing number of assignments are designed requiring students to use their technology skills. The language classrooms are taking great advantage of digital technology to film, download, edit and reworks classroom videos to re-enforce the speaking element of language learning. The senior religion classes filmed and edited original scripts on living the Ten Commandments. Algebra II students use interactive Web sites to predict the interplay between algebraic equations and graphs. Even the fine arts students use technology to create original works. For two years in a row now, SCA art students have won national recognition for artwork created using Photoshop.
Our role as educators will continue to be to teach young people to use the best of technological advances of this world with the wisdom of the next. At St. Cecilia, that means teachers and students using technology in ways that encourage and inspire the growth of the human spirit.
Sister Mary Bridgid, O.P., contributed to the writing of this article.
