While technology in the classroom offers endless answers at the snap of fingers, some students and leaders in the field say it may also be a hindrance to true learning skills.
Technology is widely used in almost every aspect of education. It ranges from laptops, smartboards, tablets, etc. These devices allow students and teachers to connect with each other within seconds.
Heather Johnson, a professor of English language and literature at SIUE, said there are benefits to adhering to platforms such as email.
“Office hours used to be very important because they were the only time students could communicate with their teachers outside of class,” Johnson says. “Email was revolutionary in that sense. Through that technology, students and teachers were able to interact more outside of class time.”
Johnson also said quality conversations via email are extremely rare.
“The quality of communication is often much lower over email or text messaging,” Johnson said. “Occasionally I’ll have a more substantive discussion with a student over email, but that’s very rare.”
Technology offers avenues for easier access, but new technology platforms can create challenges for professors and future teachers.
Johnson said SIUE doesn’t offer practical help when professors are introduced to new technology.
“ITS offers training from time to time for various programs, but I’ve never seen anything offered that’s actually useful,” Johnson said.[There is] There was no support whatsoever with technology in the classroom.”
Recalling the time when SIUE adopted the new curriculum, Johnson said he had to learn the material on his own.
“When the university adopted a new application for tracking and sharing the curriculum change process, there was no explanation,” Johnson says. “I happened to be on a committee that forced me to use the application a lot. Through trial and error, I eventually figured some things out and became a sort of ‘resident expert’ in the field. Eventually, I got so many questions that I created a guide to using the program for my fellow faculty members.”
For aspiring teachers, these issues remain real. Jerica Asbeck, a fourth-year English education major, said SIUE only offers one course on incorporating technology into the classroom.
“[SIUE has] I had a hard time figuring out how to format it [the course] “Because it is not possible to offer this course in a way that would benefit students, we have decided to remove it from the educational requirements for future programs,” Asbeck said.
She said the best way she learned to adapt to technology was by observing.
“During my time at SIUE, I’ve learned about different apps that can be used in the classroom and different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, but I think most of that was learned by watching professors teach classes rather than being taught directly,” Asbeck said.
This mindset of learning by observing is being emulated by all future teachers. Brayden Harless, a junior majoring in elementary education, said he finds in-person learning more effective than online activities such as discussion boards.
“In person, you can offer feedback and jump into the conversation. On a discussion board, you’re either waiting for a response or you’re not getting a response at all,” Harless said.
He says interacting with classmates online can be difficult.
“Face-to-face mitigates a lot of these issues because you can understand the tone and level of voice of the people in front of you, and it helps avoid conflicts that arise from misunderstandings of typed conversations,” Harless said.
Cassianna Schmidt, a secondary education English major, said in-person learning has been beneficial and that computers have created a gap in learning abilities.
“I think that in-person interaction is much more beneficial for students than doing everything on a computer,” Schmidt said. “I think the rise of the computer over in-person learning has a lot to do with COVID-19. I think that dynamic is still playing out for certain things, and it’s causing rifts in what might have been a good student-teacher relationship.”
Behind the teacher-technology divide lies the negative use of artificial intelligence.
“AI can be helpful in some ways, but it’s not always right,” Schmidt said. “If students become too reliant on it, it could have a negative impact on schooling.”
Johnson said that while AI is being pushed forward at SIUE, it misunderstands the role of a teacher and could be harmful if it tries to replace real human interaction.
“One type of program that’s consistently recommended is an AI program that gives ‘feedback’ on student writing,” Johnson says. “I understand the temptation — for any teacher of writing, or any teacher who incorporates a lot of writing in their classes, reading and responding to students’ work is one of the most time-consuming tasks. But to me, these types of programs completely misunderstand the role of the teacher.”
Johnson said his role as an English professor is to be there for his students.
“As a writing teacher, my first obligation is to really read my students’ writing and respond to it as a human being first, not as an evaluator,” Johnson said. “I not only want my students to feel heard, I want them to be heard, I want them to know that I want to hear what they have to say, that communication matters.”
Johnson said that to do his job to the best of his ability, he needs to understand how his students think and write, but he can’t teach that effectively when AI is involved.
“I need to understand how my students think and write in order to understand what they really need from me and plan the next steps for the course,” Johnson says. “If an AI is doing the work for me, are my students really being listened to? Are they really learning what they need? Are we letting their writing and their thinking guide them?”
AI isn’t the only stressor for future teachers: Harless said he worries new teachers will have to conform to the technology against their will.
“I think in the future we may be forced to teach students through a variety of websites and devices rather than through in-person learning,” Harless says.
Digging deeper into the future of technology, Taylor Self, a sophomore special education major, said she worries about how technology will impact her and her future classrooms.
“I am not very tech savvy, so I am concerned about technology and my future career,” Self said. “If my job becomes primarily teaching with technology, I will struggle to teach to the best of my ability.”
Johnson said the future is already here and impacting teachers’ lives.
“[Technology taking over is] “It’s already happening and is likely to get worse,” Johnson said. “New technologies have the potential to so fundamentally change the work of education that it will no longer be about education.”