Technolandy

Day 67 (of 2025/26) I know people like to blame phones… and now Chromebooks, but… you’re not likely gonna like why I agree with fewer Chromebooks (it’s more ‘other’ tech)

Day 67 Hear me out

Technology mindfully blended into the curriculum (what I’ve called technologization for a couple of decades) is amazing. When it’s added on without a plan, and typically reverts to trying to replicate old things in updated ways… it’s a miss. 

I know right now it is getting amplified to consider regressing back to blue books and pens to complete work. But we can’t forget that methodology segregated a large number of learners and perpetuated a 18th century of “showing what you know”. Tech has made it possible for more students to graduate in ways unable in the past – but, when you the look at how they do on a mid-20th century test (eg SAT) they don’t do as well.  But I’ve been blown away by presentations that didn’t include words (even added that into bag-of-tricks: word maximum) and by videos and auditory shares that were rare when I started pushing these options 20 years ago. Honestly I’m disappointed that I can share some stuff from 2005 and it still looks like a lofty goal. Sigh

So I paused and reflected. If people are angry at Chromebooks (and even AI) perhaps it’s because of our own mindsets. If and when we use tech to perform older methodologies, of course it becomes less engaging and more brainless – tech is not meant to be able to replace the typewriter. It is meant to be used in ways not otherwise able to be done. So when Chromebooks are used for typing, it is missing so much. So… let’s get Apple re-producing the iBook!

iMovie and GarageBand enabled so much creative content and community. If kids aren’t showing each other tricks and strategies, you’re missing a big part. Recording students reading text ain’t revolutionary (was part of our 2004 portfolio for student led conferences) but not enough are archiving this way (in my opinion) which has had parents amazed when they could see their kids read in school if they w/couldn’t at home…

Maybe we need less Chromebook and more iBook. But really I think we need more understanding that Chromebooks iBooks and personal screens enable the whole concept of what schooling & learning looks like – NOT like the prussian setup focused on year of birth and everyone learning the same content at the same time and graduating at the same pace. 

Focusing on the Chromebook is the wrong lens ~ similar to focusing on “which textbook” should be used. I’ve vented on this a couple of times, while at one point, it’s not about the tool… sometimes the tool accelerates or stymies the process. 

Focus on nostalgia and pretending the old days were better for learning is also a false memory… https://apple.news/AKX1x4dsCSHe27g9EmKsnzQ we have yearnings for the gold old days, but gotta be mindful they were not so good for so many… focusing on high stakes memorization tests and written output that it’s focused on 5 paragraph essays… ugh. If anything, that horrible essay format should be used much as sight words are used… a format to start rough but not stick with – expand prose much as we encourage experimenting with poetry (well, most of us do… some score based on following specific conventions – see the opening salvo in Dead Poets Society. 

The tools for equity and acceleration are here – schooling needs to shift to more tech (much to the chagrin of those who wish that only families who can afford tutors will succeed in the system and those who have to hold down a job or look after their own families are held back and not able to succeed (but we can blame it on them not wanting to put the work in..) 

I will also note that I see some poor uses of tech as well. As said, when done to replace old approaches (typing instead of cursive) it’s a start, but it is certainly not the end game. Editing typed work is much more achievable than starting a hand written creation again (and again and again in my own experience = shorter and faster compositions where quantity -less- mattered more to me than quality -and a predicted error on the last line of the scrap of paper). 

If students are using the tools for distractions all the time, much as previous generations used paper tablets under their desks to ignore the teacher; and paper and pen(cil)s to send DMs, taunts, and other horrible compositions that we kinda wish we maybe hadn’t…. Then we should use the time to focus on their abilities to better help student show what they know, AND much as we don’t ban pens and paper for all the harm that they have created, we ought to focus on a few key conventions:

Creating vs Consuming content (sometimes we need to go down rabbit holes of research, and now have access to more text and video than in any library era in human history.

Sometimes a distraction can be good to get focused; for our mental health we need to explore when, and how much of a distraction is beneficial for us (no one rule… not even the suggested ‘hours of screentime’ is a universal panacea) Good studies show things like tweets can help with traumatic experience recovery…

Guided Gradual Release of Responsibility matters – we ought to be modelling good use and practice – it is what can make 1:1 device environments more community oriented than classes where heads are down and there is no peer

Project Based Learning is powerful with tech. Yes, some common ‘direct instruction’ can occur to start off, but then students can use their strengths to follow some of their own ponders (junior inquiry…) within a supportive learning environment to explore different ways to communicate learning. 3D shares; presentations; essays – or even better articles in styles that mimic writings that are actually read (sorry, my newspaper background is showing); videos; audios; etc

But assuming tech will just work for all… it’s a wrong thinking – much like the misassumption that with the term ‘digital natives’ it was assumed students would innately know how to save files, transfer types, etc whereas it just means that they are more familiar with the environment around them… and by keeping that environment away from them (banning screens AI et al) makes school more and more of an unfamiliar environment…. And my own worry, much as I’ll vent that the SAT just shows universities how well students complete tests like the SAT… without some shifting/mindful re-creating, will school graduation not be about knowledge and intelligence, but just how well people played ‘the game of school’….

My experience – more apple devices and mindsets… I hate to say it, but Windows mindsets has largely (not exclusively) led to doing essays in new ways, and Google, despite being powerful, has missed some opportunities to also push beyond archiving writing samples (not Googles fault). Apple influenced educators have done the best at shifting beyond text. But, prove me wrong – highlight more examples where Windows districts are transforming education and doing new things… things that cannot be done without tech. This is the area we need to better leverage tech in schools – not going back to blue books and #3 pencils (and scantrons and other strategies that mechanizes the assessment/evaluation process) but relaunching how screentime can be leveraged to being engaging, meaningful and relevant, where learning doesn’t need distractions.