why teach history with technology-2011
TRANSCRIPT
Why Teach History with Technology?
Justin ReichEdTechTeacher.org
Co-DirectorHarvard Graduate School of Education
Doctoral Researcher
Why Change?• Haven’t we been doing good work for a long
time?• Why should we invest the time and energy into
learning technology when we could invest the same in refining well-established practice?
• What are the rewards of that investment in developing technology rich teaching practices?
Personal Digital Photo Archives
Online Archive of the Historical Record
Online citation and notetaking
Historians as bloggers
Participation and Engagement
“I never realized what little regard my students had for my opinion until I started
having them turn their work into one another”
– 8th grade teacher
Skills for 21st Century Work and Life:
The New Division of LaborRichard J. Murnane
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Computerizing Routine Tasks: Self-Service Check-In
Types of Tasks Computers Do Not Well
Tasks that cannot be described well as a series of if-then-do steps because:
•The boundaries of the problem are ill-defined•Solving the problem requires imagining novel solutions
•We learn to define the task and accomplish it through social interactions
Economy-Wide Measures of Routine and Non-Economy-Wide Measures of Routine and Non-Routine Task Input: 1969-1998 (1969=0)Routine Task Input: 1969-1998 (1969=0)
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
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1969 1980 1990 1998
Perc
entil
e Ch
ange
in 1
969
Dist
ribut
ion
Complex Communication
Expert Thinking
Routine Manual
Routine Cognitive
Changes in Task Mix Within Occupations: Example: Secretary
• 1970 description of a secretary’s job:“Secretaries relieve their employers of routine duties so
they can work on more important matters. . . .”
• 2000 description of a secretary’s job:“. . . Office automation and organizational restructuring
have led secretaries to assume a wide range of new responsibilities once reserved for managerial and professional staff. Many secretaries now provide training and orientation to new staff, conduct research on the Internet, and learn to operate new office technologies.” Source: U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Handbook
What was the date of battle of the Spanish Armada?
Student 1: 1588.Q. How do you know this?
It was one of the dates I memorized for the exam. Q. Why is the event important?
I don’t know.
This example is taken from Bransford, Brown and Cocking (eds.)
What was the date of battle of the Spanish Armada?
Student 1: 1588.Q. How do you know this?
It was one of the dates I memorized for the exam. Q. Why is the event important?
I don’t know.
Student 2: It must have been around 1590. Q. How do you know this?
I know the English began to settle in Virginia just after 1600, although I’m not sure of the exact date. They wouldn't have dared start overseas explorations if Spain still had control of the seas. It would have taken a little while to get expeditions organized, so England must have gained naval supremacy somewhere in the late 1500's.
Q. Why is the event important?It marks a turning point in the relative importance of England and Spain as European powers and colonizers of the New World.
This example is taken from Bransford, Brown and Cocking (eds.)
A Homework Question• Examine the homework that teachers in your school
typically assign:
– Does the homework push students to develop expert thinking skills (non-routine problem solving)
– What about communication skills?– Or does the homework ask students to do the kind of rules-
based tasks that computers can be programmed to do?
• The answer may tell you a lot about the types of jobs your school is preparing students to do.
So things are different…• The practice of history is changing…• The experience of young people is
changing…• The demands of the labor market are
changing…
But how do we incorporate technology in our instruction?
thwt.org
It’s the hardest work I ever undertaken in my career. We’re trying to effect change in scale, and we have to “play on two playing fields” at once. We’re still being judged by the criteria for “Adequate Yearly Progress” and state accountability standards, while we are holding ourselves to a much higher standard. We have to succeed at both. It’s hard work, but it’s the right work to be doing.- Jim Merrill, Superintendent of Virginia Beach Public Schools (in Wagner, Global Achievement Gap)
