Reflection: An Interview with Don Speck
Teaching has changed a lot in the last 24 years, and almost quarter of a century. Don Speck is a retired teacher from Galena Park ISD that subs at my school and is married to the Algebra and Pre-Calculus teacher who is right next door to my classroom. His experience in the field of education expands from the classroom to technology support roles. Twenty four years in education has seen some rapid changes. Texas alone changed tests TAAS launched in 1990 to TAKS, and finally to STAAR. The level of the questions increasing in difficulty with each iteration of the test. While Don Speck worked in the classroom a few hundred miles away I attended first grade that year. Our experiences with technology were different, but there are some glaring similarities. Money still plays a large roll in technology and its implementation. My experience at a school that can afford to buy iPads for its students is vastly different then the schools down the road that could only afford a few computers per classroom. As technology has become cheaper to buy and a larger emphasis has been placed on it there is now a larger percentage of schools that are placing technology in the classroom.
Today tablets, phones, laptops, and computers are commonplace in the classroom. These electronic devices can be both educational and unwarranted stowaways in the classroom. My experience with iPads and technology rich campuses that are going paperless is a far cry from the classroom that Don Speck describes in 1990. He started in a rural school district with an overhead projector, filmstrips, and no Internet. Classroom technology had not really seen much of a revolution in terms of student interactivity. Speck makes a good point of technologies use was more about record keeping and less about instruction. 1990 marked the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0. This was the beginning of the home computer revolution, and was a place where only a few districts could afford computers.
My experience in the first grade classroom closely mirrors Mr. Speck. Technology was not as present in the first grade classroom as it is in current classrooms. There was not a computer in my classroom and we spent a lot of time practicing writing and reading instead of learning technology skills. Galena park was a small district and so was the district that I spent the first formative years of my education in. The experience that I had in the first grade classroom was devoid of technology. When I returned home I got to spend a little time on video games. This is something that Speck echoed in the interview, stating that only played video games and did not have access to the technology that they do now.
The learning environment was also exceedingly different. Chalkboard style lectures dominated his classroom, while student participation in learning was not as prolific as it is today. Speck also makes the claim that the use of PowerPoint for lectures has actually gone against the student-centered classroom and made it easier to create lectures. The prevalent teacher driven model still exists especially in teachers that are not as experienced in the classroom as others. This technology teacher driven model though is not in favor much anymore and the classroom is moving to decentralize technologies role from a passive observer to a more student driven model. Speck talks about discovery learning using web quests and generating group projects as trends he has seen in the classroom today.
Speck emphasized that the biggest invention over the past few years has been the personal handheld electronic devices that are always connected to the Internet. Wirelessly having access to that large resource of information radically changes the instructional paradigm. Web 2.0 furthers the goal of interactive education by providing web-based resources that extend beyond the traditional poster.
Technology also comes with a negative, and it is this negative that Speck helps to put into focus. He listed several downsides to all of this technology and the one that I have had the most experience with is glitches that result in wasted time in the classroom. The other problem is the ever-present distraction of personal devices as much as they are a source of knowledge. In the interview these disadvantages of distractions come up a lot. Student behavior is so much more divided now that the distractions are not left at home. In 1990 if the student wanted to watch a video they had to wait to get home. Now however that student can watch it on Netflix making monitoring the technology the student uses even more important.
The last 24 years has resulted in a massive shift of teaching to a student driven model that relies heavily on technology that was used until recently only for administrative purposes. Students have not changed but the ability to access information. In 1990 you had to go and look up information in a book or memorize an equation or look it up. Now each student has a device in their hand that can help to answer questions and look up information faster than ever before. As teachers we have to allow for this shift in society by changing our practices. Speck imparted through his words a need to find balance between education and all of the distractions that exist out in the world.
Today tablets, phones, laptops, and computers are commonplace in the classroom. These electronic devices can be both educational and unwarranted stowaways in the classroom. My experience with iPads and technology rich campuses that are going paperless is a far cry from the classroom that Don Speck describes in 1990. He started in a rural school district with an overhead projector, filmstrips, and no Internet. Classroom technology had not really seen much of a revolution in terms of student interactivity. Speck makes a good point of technologies use was more about record keeping and less about instruction. 1990 marked the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0. This was the beginning of the home computer revolution, and was a place where only a few districts could afford computers.
My experience in the first grade classroom closely mirrors Mr. Speck. Technology was not as present in the first grade classroom as it is in current classrooms. There was not a computer in my classroom and we spent a lot of time practicing writing and reading instead of learning technology skills. Galena park was a small district and so was the district that I spent the first formative years of my education in. The experience that I had in the first grade classroom was devoid of technology. When I returned home I got to spend a little time on video games. This is something that Speck echoed in the interview, stating that only played video games and did not have access to the technology that they do now.
The learning environment was also exceedingly different. Chalkboard style lectures dominated his classroom, while student participation in learning was not as prolific as it is today. Speck also makes the claim that the use of PowerPoint for lectures has actually gone against the student-centered classroom and made it easier to create lectures. The prevalent teacher driven model still exists especially in teachers that are not as experienced in the classroom as others. This technology teacher driven model though is not in favor much anymore and the classroom is moving to decentralize technologies role from a passive observer to a more student driven model. Speck talks about discovery learning using web quests and generating group projects as trends he has seen in the classroom today.
Speck emphasized that the biggest invention over the past few years has been the personal handheld electronic devices that are always connected to the Internet. Wirelessly having access to that large resource of information radically changes the instructional paradigm. Web 2.0 furthers the goal of interactive education by providing web-based resources that extend beyond the traditional poster.
Technology also comes with a negative, and it is this negative that Speck helps to put into focus. He listed several downsides to all of this technology and the one that I have had the most experience with is glitches that result in wasted time in the classroom. The other problem is the ever-present distraction of personal devices as much as they are a source of knowledge. In the interview these disadvantages of distractions come up a lot. Student behavior is so much more divided now that the distractions are not left at home. In 1990 if the student wanted to watch a video they had to wait to get home. Now however that student can watch it on Netflix making monitoring the technology the student uses even more important.
The last 24 years has resulted in a massive shift of teaching to a student driven model that relies heavily on technology that was used until recently only for administrative purposes. Students have not changed but the ability to access information. In 1990 you had to go and look up information in a book or memorize an equation or look it up. Now each student has a device in their hand that can help to answer questions and look up information faster than ever before. As teachers we have to allow for this shift in society by changing our practices. Speck imparted through his words a need to find balance between education and all of the distractions that exist out in the world.