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Why are things that used to be relatively easy now so darn hard? Counting ballots used to be a fairly straightforward affair. In Iowa, someone had the remarkable idea that an app could make things easier, and instead it did precisely the opposite.
The New York Times, “Um, What Just Happened in Iowa?”
Is ed tech as hopeless as the Iowa caucus app? Are we doing the same thing to teaching and learning with technology as the app did to the Iowa Democratic caucus? Are we so enamored with the promise of efficiency that technology can bring that higher ed is making the same tech-blind mistake as the Iowa Democratic Party?
I ask these questions as someone who makes his living -- at least in part -- as a champion of educational technology.
Is it possible that I, and people like me, have an Iowa caucus-size ed-tech blind spot?
What are the higher ed equivalents of the Iowa caucus app?
- Digital textbooks: We can’t seem to let go of the dream to move our textbooks from print to digital. We fantasize about lower costs, interactive graphics, embedded assessments and multimedia. The only problem with this digital textbook dream is that, for many students, digital is a nightmare. Some learners learn better with print. They need the tactile feel and the ability to write in the margin that paper provides. A paper textbook does not distract with other possibilities in the same way that, say, a digital textbook app on an iPad does.
- Clickers: Classroom response systems seem like such a good idea. Anonymous and instantaneous feedback. An ability to intersperse lectures with low-stakes assessments. An equalizer and enabler of student participation. And there is no doubt that some clicker gurus are teaching on our campuses. For most teaching, however, clickers have never quite clicked. A tremendous amount of effort is required to effectively incorporate the technology into lecturing. It is not clear that the ROI of this effort makes sense, compared with low-tech methods that professors can use to facilitate active learning.
- PowerPoint: PowerPoint has killed the lecture. The crutch of PowerPoint allows all of us to avoid the necessity of crafting a verbal narrative arc. PowerPoint has mostly turned the art of storytelling into the activity information transmission. Banning all PowerPoint from university lectures and professional conference talks would diminish some presentations but improve vastly more.
What educational technologies would you nominate for the Iowa caucus app award?
