Since the beginning of my time in the college setting, both Junior College and University, technology has become an increasingly important aspect of the classroom. I can recall some of my first classes at Modesto Junior College between 2007 and 2009 where the entirety of the class was based around textbooks and notebooks. Not a single computer was used except for typing a paper. It would be half a decade before Google Drive, my main hub for writing nowadays, would come into the world. BlackBoard had been out for about a decade but it was not used in every classroom. Technology was limited, and this list is comprehensive for my experience, to typing papers on a computer, using a printer, and sending the occasional email. As a bonus, there were rare instances of trading phone numbers with a fellow student.
Fast forward to the end of my MJC experience (a chronology of bits and pieces spanning seven years) and technology is edging its way into the normal experience. BlackBoard is starting to gain momentum for my professors, and assignments and syllabuses are being uploaded in lieu of paper handouts. Assignments are also being turned in online. Discussion boards are being used to promote conversation with other students about topics and classes are taking on a new term: hybrid. Face to face meetings still occur but they are integrated with and supported by technology.
Now, here I am in English 215B: Teaching ESL Writing at CSUS and, aside from once a week in-person meetings, everything about the course is happening either outside of the classroom and/or online. The syllabus, assignments, discussions, readings, journals, observations; the classroom is not so much a place of taking on new information as it is discussing information we are taking on outside of the classroom. The professor is less teacher and more facilitator, guiding us from assignment to assignment to achieve the maximum benefit from real-world texts and experiences.
All of these things that are happening outside of classroom are kept organized using technology. Namely, using the Canvas system. Announcements, assignments, discussions, grades, people, pages, files, syllabus, modules, collaborations; these are just some of the tabs that detail the range of information at my fingertips. All of this accessibility runs the gamut from scholastic housekeeping to deep engagement with academic texts to synthesizing experiences.
The question for me becomes: with all that is gained by technology, the amount of information and the speed of accessibility to it all, is anything lost by leaving the old ways behind? My short answer...not really. While there is a learning curve to using technology, I cannot help but see this move as the next logical step in the human quest for ever increasing intelligence. More, faster. More information, faster access to it, and our role is to adjust to this new stream.
As teachers, our role becomes adjusting students to this new stream. No more is it simply reading chapters out of a book and writing in notebooks, spending hours in a library to find related articles, then typing up a paper on the laptop. Suddenly the student is able to browse scholarly libraries, write papers, ask questions, reflect on experiences, engage in discussions, and more in the blink of an eye. For some students, this is tough. It is tough to learn the technology, to understand all that one is able to do as well as how to do it, but with enough practice, the benefits of being able to do it far outweigh the benefits of a slow and time limited approach.
I believe that technology such as BlackBoard and Canvas in the classroom is not only the way to go, but is only a single step in the future integration of technology in all aspects of teaching. Tablets for students in the classroom that are all connected, video chat conferences with students so that conferences can happen without the student having to worry about transportation or working within specific timeframes, online recorded lectures for days when a teacher cannot make it so that lessons still get taught and learning still occurs. Technology has made an impact already, and there is still much more that it can do. One day, technology will no longer be the add-on to the classroom experience, but rather it will be the classroom experience.
