I observed a middle school Language Arts class which lasted 50 minutes from bell-to-bell. The teacher had posted the objective of "Learning to unpack the writing prompt." She had the students get a tablet from a charging cart and then proceed to log into their accounts so they could use a program called "Cornell Notes." Over the next 25 minutes, I watched as students struggled with their logins, tried to remember how to access the Cornell notes app, tried to remember how to use the highlight and underline features on the app, etc. For more than half of the class period, the only interaction between teacher and students and between students was about how to use the technology. Not one word in regard to the posted objective.
The problem isn't always technology, however. I observed the same time-wasting in another middle school Language Arts class with the same posted objective. This time, however, the teacher was having the students create a "foldable" to be placed in their Writer's Notebook. For more than half the period, the students spent their time trying to imitate how the teacher folded, cut, and pasted a piece of paper into the desired product. Students had difficulty using the scissors, cutting in the right place, folding in the right way. It was a complete waste of instructional time and I suspect the students never did make the connection between the foldable and the objective.
Dr. Schmoker isn't saying that technology in the classroom is bad. What he is saying is that instruction that is dependent upon technology, or designed to accommodate technology, can be a disruption, can use up valuable instruction time, and can interfere with the transfer of learning. I would bet that if you asked many of the students in the classrooms I describe above what they were learning, they would answer that they were learning to use a tablet or learning to make a foldable.
"Research demonstrates the folly of our current priorities, such as investing heavily in technology when it has had, so far, such limited impact on student learning" (Dylan Wiliams)
Advocates of 21st Century education are not urging us to rashly reinvent curriculum around technology or group projects. They are not proposing that students spend less time learning content and more time making movie previews, video skits, wikis, silent movies or clay animation figures.
We need to say 'No, thank you' to such faddish, time-gobbling activities"
- Mike Schmoker on Pg 26, Focus
Source: Marc Tucker's book, Leading High-Performance School Systems (Watch video overview)
The Reboot Foundation says, "Our data suggest that technology may not always be used in a way that prompts richer forms of learning." Their findings make these points: