Technology’s Impacts 1
Technology’s Impacts in Cypress School District
Adam Kelley
ETEC 525
December 10, 2008
Technology’s Impacts 2
Through all of my education, training, and preparation to
become a teacher I have heard only about the benefits of
technology. My first professional development was a
presentation for Smart Boards. As a group, we were wowed
with its features and possibilities. The only downside on
people’s minds was the high cost, which we inevitably knew
would hinder the purchasing of such a technology. It never
occurred to me that there could be other negatives in placing
such a tool in classrooms throughout Cypress School District.
Neil Postman, critic and theorist, would be quick to warn us that
technologies are fraught with problems. These problems can be
difficult to anticipate because the designers are sometimes not
aware they exist (1990). Ultimately, it is up to us as individuals
to raise questions about the implementation of these tools. By
asking only superficial questions, we must endure lasting
changes to our world (1992, p. 19). In permitting computers,
the Internet, and Smart Boards to enter classrooms, has Cypress
School District attempted to ascertain knowledge of the impacts
on our students, teaching practice, and schools? Or do we
ignorantly cheer on the adoption of these technologies unaware
of the possible consequences?
I can remember being in school when I was younger and being
told that computers were going to improve our schools. I was
excited about them. I couldn’t wait to have the opportunity to
play Oregon Trail. The idea that I was playing a video game was
absurd to me. I thought that I was somehow getting away with
something in school, a time normally reserved exclusively for
learning. My teacher must have been thinking how great it was
to see students so excited to do something educational. Here I
was so willing to participate in a history simulation, while my
teacher believed I was absorbing the social studies curriculum.
Indeed this scene portrays an exciting union of ideas: technology
and education.
Technology’s Impacts 3
Neil Postman would claim that we need to examine how
technology can change ways in which students learn and how it
can destabilize the idea of school (1992, p. 19). The rise of the
television is a great indicator of how our schools have been
changed by technology. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a
rush to get television into classrooms. It was thought that this
media would provide students with a variety of information.
What television did, however, was to create a society devoted
almost entirely to entertainment. The average shot on television
lasts a mere 3.5 seconds. Television’s content focuses on image
attention and easily comprehendible material. Without these
features, one would not be able to watch programs without
having seen every show that preceded it (Postman, 1986, pp.
142-143). “If the classroom now begins to seem a stale and flat
environment for learning, the inventors of the television are to
blame” (1986, p. 143). In conducting interviews with teachers
and administrators across Cypress School District, the number
one cited change to classrooms was the idea that technologies
hold the students’ attention. Claiming that these new
educational tools keep the students’ attention is similar to saying
that students are being entertained by them. While television
has taken a back seat to the computer, internet, and Smart
Board, it provides a lot of insight as to where we have come from
as a society attempting to fuse education with its technologies.
Cypress School District is composed of nine schools with
approximately 4,300 students. Every school has a computer lab
on-site, each being built ten to fifteen years ago. Every lab
contains 32 computers with a teacher presentation station
linked to a large screen television (only one lab contains a Smart
Board). Within each computer lab, software has been
purchased, but decisions as to what to buy were left up to each
school to determine the needs of their students. Figure 1
Technology’s Impacts 4
indicates which programs are used most frequently within each
of the nine computer labs:
10
8
Num ber of Schools
6
4
2
0
Microsoft
Word
Accelerated
Reader
Type to
Learn
Pow er Point
Quarter
Mile Math
KidPix
Read, Write,
Learn
Any program being employed by two or less schools was not
included. When teachers were asked how they decided what
software programs their students utilized in the lab, these were
the top three reasons cited: students can use the program
independently, the need for students to learn how to word
process, and the need for students to practice basic skills. Given
this list of demands, the programs being used certainly do the
job. The District’s mission statement, however, cannot possibly
be met given its expectations of technology. “Technology will be
useful for expanding the academic base toward more higher
level thinking skills and motivating students toward other areas
beyond the curriculum” (Cypress Technology Plan, 2008, p. v).
Even the untrained eye can compare the software with the
expected outcomes and conclude that they do not match. C.A.
Bowers would probably state that the above list of programs is
limited alone by the explicit knowledge they contain. Thinking
in this sense will be reduced to information retrieval (1988, p.
33). This is the first clear indicator that Cypress School District
places too much faith in its technologies.
In their book Teaching and Learning with Technology, Judy
Lever-Duffy and Jean B. McDonald outline nine varieties of
Technology’s Impacts 5
academic software (2008, pp. 210-211). Here are the types and
their specific functions:
Software Type
Application to Teaching and
Learning
Program Used in
Cypress School
District
Authoring Systems
Used to create tutorials and web pages
Desktop Publishing
Used to create newsletters, flyers,
transparencies, and other printed
media
Microsoft Word &
Power Point
Graphics
Allows visual images to be created or
enhanced electronically
Kid Pix
Reference
Electronic dictionaries, encyclopedias,
and atlases
Gives students one-on-one assistance
to learn concepts
Presents content in an engaging format
to provide practice
Encarta 2003
Allows students to re-enact scenarios
to promote learning
Examples include enlarged pointers
and print, to voice recognition
software
Oregon Trail
Typically includes tutorial, drill and
practice, and classroom management
tools that give students and teachers
feedback with performance
Accelerated Reader
Tutorial/Drill/Practice
Educational Games
Simulations
Special Needs
Integrated Learning
Systems
Type to Learn, and
Read, Write, Learn
Quarter Mile Math,
Math Blasters, Math
Munchers, and Jump
Start (Grades 1-3)
Utilized as needed in
RSP classrooms
Programs displayed in the “Educational Games” column were
limited to two or more schools reporting that the software was
used at their site. A glance at the table indicates that we as a
district have too many educational games. Some schools utilize
two or three educational software programs to allow students to
practice basic math skills alone. In working with Math Blasters
and Math Munchers, one would discover that the programs
allow students to practice the same skills in only slightly
different formats. Math Blasters utilizes a space theme, while
Math Munchers engages students with monsters. Why is it
Technology’s Impacts 6
necessary to purchase 32 of both programs for a computer lab?
My school, Cawthon Elementary, has both programs. Teachers at
my site cannot remember why the software was purchased. Not
only is it worthless to have them both at one school site, they are
what Joel Cooper and Kimberlee D. Weaver, educational
technology researchers, would consider gender biased software.
Both programs utilize visual images and sounds to give students
feedback on performance, a feature preferred by boys. Neither
program gives instruction for incorrect answers, they simply
move to the next problem. Girls prefer to receive assistance for
questions answered incorrectly. Finally, both programs feature
themes preferred by boys: space, war, and sports. Their
research has found girls to have higher levels of anxiety with
such games, thus they benefit from these programs less (2003,
pp. 16-23).
In looking at Figure 2, there is an apparent deficiency
throughout the district with authoring software. Software that
would allow schools to create how-to videos would serve a
greater purpose than two sets of the same educational game.
Lilia C. DiBello, graduate professor at Barry University, discusses
the idea that teachers struggle to implement technology for
various reasons. One of these reasons was the fact that
teachers must consider their students’ varying degrees of
instructional needs toward technology.
Because of these challenges, teachers often end up teaching the
how-to of technology rather than blending the curriculum with
technology (2005, pp 240-241). By utilizing a tutorial program,
a subset of authoring software, my school district would allow
students to work at their own pace. Students that know the howto of the technology component could skip right to its use with
the curriculum. Those students who need assistance with using
the technology could work independently, a feature preferred by
Technology’s Impacts 7
teachers, to gain the necessary skills and/or information to
move on.
Cypress School District’s policy to let schools determine their
own needs for software in computer labs has its drawbacks. The
biggest negative feature is that teachers’ desire to have a
program that the students can work with independently creates
a higher demand for educational games. These games fulfill
teacher’s needs to make the computer lab a manageable
environment; but this is just another indicator that the
technology dictates what we do. These programs may be easier
for students to work with; however, it is exactly this feature that
brings about the program’s limitations. Our computer labs fall
short in offering the full gamut of software that our teachers
and students could benefit from.
When teachers were asked about the negative aspects of the
computer labs, these were the most popular answers:
-
Limited time to spend in the lab / Yet they sit empty most of the time
Equipment does not always work properly
Difficult to provide assistance given the ratio of students to teacher
Outdated equipment
Speaking with the district administrator regarding the
maintenance of this infrastructure, he stated that doing so has
become more of a challenge with the adoption of Smart Boards.
Cypress only has three technicians on staff, a staff that has had
more demands placed upon them over the last few years. Needs
to maintain the district’s labs will become more prevalent
because nearly 60% of the computers are more than four years
old (Cypress Technology Plan, 2008, p. 4). The district’s
Technology Plan literally spells out the fact that there is little
money to upgrade these systems. “There will be a greater need
to write grants and involve the community to make
improvements” (Cypress Technology Plan, 2008, p. 38). One can
Technology’s Impacts 8
only imagine that if these labs fall to the wayside because of the
district’s shift toward Smart Boards that the computer labs
become even less effective. Given that the district has spent
millions of dollars to construct these labs, and hundreds of
thousands to maintain them, they appear to be used for very
little benefit to the students, especially considering what the
district expects they will do. When asked what the rationale was
behind creating these labs, the district technology administrator
said that it was a matter of “keeping up with the Jones’.” I
consider this to be a haphazard way of going about
implementing technology. Neil Postman would say that this is a
prime example of a school district believing they are using a
technology, but the reality is that they are being used by the
technology (1992, p. 84).
Postman points out that what makes computers so
attractive to us as technological tools is their unlimited potential.
They are tools that have many uses and they tie to other
machines (1992, p. 107). Perhaps this is what is attractive to us
as educators; we believe computers can be made to meet any
need we place upon them. This phenomenon has seemingly
taken place in the private sector. Computers have been
programmed to understand future moves in the stock market,
design and test engineering marvels, and other cause-effect
scenarios. The accuracy of these models, however, is unknown.
These models make it evident that humans are information
processors, interpreting the data from the computers, and that
all things have data to be input (Postman, 1992, p 107). This is
most certainly another ironic crossroad given that national
standards, state standards, and their assessments reduce
education to cycles of output, data, and data interpretation. Each
year my principal reviews how our students have done on the
state test. Thus, the students have been reduced to simply
processing the information in the curriculum. This begs the
Technology’s Impacts 9
question: Are our students truly learning? Looking at this, it
feels as if all of education has been debased by computer
technology. The strangest part of all is that teachers and
administrators have celebrated the fusion of computers and
education. Postman was warning us of this when he said,
“Computer technology…has not yet come close to the printing
press in its power to generate radical and substantive social,
political, and religious thought” (1992, p. 116).
Next I turn my attention to use of the Internet within the
district. Internet is available on only the teacher stations in each
classroom by means of Cat-5 broadband cable throughout the
district. Each computer lab also has the capability of connecting
to the Internet at the same broadband speed; however, the
teacher must put in their username and password for each
computer. As Figure 3 points out, many teachers do not allow
their students to access the Internet.
25%
Yes
No
75%
Some cited fears with giving up control of such a powerful tool,
while others stated they feared being held accountable for what
students might run into while navigating the Internet.
When asked about the how the Internet changes education,
everyone interviewed claimed that it allowed access to more
information. Neil Postman argues that the abundant presence
of information is Internet’s negative feature. “Our most serious
problems are not technical, nor do they arise from inadequate
Technology’s Impacts 10
information” (1992, p. 119). Take for example the obstacles
plaguing our failing schools, could they be solved by having
more information? Postman would argue that many of the
problems facing us could never be addressed with technology’s
ability to service us with more information at light speed. He
would instead claim that this, the information age, is now a
deluge of chaos. Billboards, newspapers, magazines, TVs, radios,
websites, books, photographs, and movies are creating a clutter
of information. This then creates the problem of learning to
filter all of this information (Postman, 1990). The teachers
interviewed mirror this idea in their anxiety to allow students to
access the Internet for fear of having them encounter
something inappropriate. This fact exists even though Cypress
School District incorporates firewall and spam software to
protect students. Apparently it is an area where teachers have
unconsciously decided that the costs outweigh the benefits.
Neil Postman warns us that being filled to the brim with
information prevents our students from judging the context of
the information they are given. It is all too easy for anyone to
persuade others to believe any outrageous claim. This is
especially true if my statement begins with the words, “Scientists
have demonstrated…” The reason anyone will believe the
statement lies in the facets of, as Postman put it, our peek-a-boo
world. The idea at the forefront of our attention can be easily
moved away and on to something else. This information
appears aimlessly, detached from theory, context, and intention
(1992, pp. 56-70). “It is only now beginning to be understood
that cultures may also suffer grievously from information glut,
information without meaning, information without control
mechanisms” (Postman, 1992, p. 70). I feel that much of what I
teach each day falls into this category. Students are expected to
drop what they were learning with the digestive system and
move immediately to learning about the causes of the
Technology’s Impacts 11
Revolutionary War. This places such a demand on students’
attention span, but as I spoke of earlier, perhaps the fast paced
attributes of television have made this normal for our students.
Finally, I turn my attention to the newest technology being
installed throughout Cypress School District: Smart Boards.
Currently, 40 classrooms have a Smart Board. The majority of
them are located at Landell Elementary, where parents have
worked to raise funds in order to ensure that every classroom
had this technology. Neil Postman would tell us that this is a
perfect example of technology’s benefits not being dispersed
equally (1992, p. 9). Given that Smart Boards have a
considerable up-front cost of $3,000-$5,000 it is no surprise
that parents have had to take the initiative to make sure their
children have access to these technologies.
When teachers and administrators were asked how Smart
Boards changed the process by which students learned, everyone
replied that it: engaged students, kept their attention, or made
things more interesting. I found it shocking that this was the
best feature cited for using Smart Boards. Postman would
probably claim that what teachers are witnessing is the Smart
Board’s ability to feed students thriving on television. The
problem is not that television presents us with subject matter,
but that all subject matter must be entertaining (1986, p. 87).
Serious lectures, discussions, theories, hypotheses turn
television into radio with printed matter. If the information
cannot be both visualized and converted to an engaging format,
then it should never appear on television (Postman, 1986, p.
148). What Smart Boards allow us to do then is to present all
things visually so that we entertain students in order to keep
their attention.
What should be most important to the district is that
teachers should be seeing more learning from their students
Technology’s Impacts 12
than classrooms that do not have Smart Boards. I am unable to
assess this information because I do not have state test data for
these students from one year to another. In addition to this, to
isolate the Smart Boards’ effects on state test data is nearly
impossible. Postman, however, found some research that
indicated that only 3.5% of a group of people could successfully
answer 12 true or false questions related to two 30-second video
segments. Information transmitted through print form
significantly increased the amount of recall with regard to
names and people within the material (1986, p 151). While
these studies took place to find television’s effectiveness on
learning, I believe the study applies to learning on Smart Boards
because they present a similar teaching style to that of television.
When asked what Cypress School District was doing to
understand how effective Smart Boards were, the technology
administrator claimed that there was nothing as of now.
The district is also doing very little to provide training for
teachers who receive the Smart Boards. I myself have just
received a Smart Board within the last month, but was told that
the cost of doing so would be the need to train myself. Lilia
DiBello brings up an important point on the issue of teacher
training when she found that few teachers could infuse this
technology without an inordinate amount of dedication and
outside support. She saw the drawbacks within a small school
district where they hired a consultant to support teachers in
expanding the technology’s uses (2005, p. 240). Currently,
Cypress places more emphasis on the means by which we
acquire more Smart Boards. It is expected that teachers using
the technology will place their lessons on a shared drive so that
others may see and use the innovations being created. Simply
seeing the lessons, however, does little for teachers who still lack
the know-how to create lessons for their own students.
Technology’s Impacts 13
Because Smart Boards are so often touted to teachers and
parents, I wondered if teachers and administrators were aware
of any drawbacks at all. Five of the twelve respondents claimed
that the only downside is when the Smart Board is not working
(computer crashes or the board has a problem). They equated
it with the idea of being moved back into the stone age of having
to work with the whiteboard to do all teaching. I asked the
teachers that did have a Smart Board who responded this way if
they were doing anything to combat this, but none of them were.
The problem of a computer crash has the easy solution of simply
purchasing a portable hard drive and backing all information up.
The board not working for a day or a month is solved by never
abandoning overhead transparency machines as soon as you
receive the Smart Board. A quick glance around the room
indicated that these teachers had not considered this possibility.
It is as if these teachers were giving in to the Smart Board’s evils
and pitfalls, as if this is what happens with technology. An
effective teacher utilizing technology should always “understand
that technology must never be accepted as part of the natural
order of things” (Postman, 1992, p. 184). It is evident to me that
teachers and administrators in Cypress do not see this.
“Computers as a technology have certainly made us believe
that human progress and technology are tied together”
(Postman, 1992, p. 117). We are thus taught to believe that we
are at our best when we are thinking and acting like machines.
This is most certainly an ironic set of circumstances given that
teachers claim such hatred for being given teacher materials
that tell them what to teach, what to say, and when to do it. If we
look deep enough, we will find that these negatives of technology
are found within all we do as teachers. This is not to say that we
must surrender ourselves because the proverbial wheels are
already in motion, but rather that we must install fail-safes as
we continue forward. Cypress School District needs to re-
Technology’s Impacts 14
evaluate their expectations for technologies. They can most
certainly be made to meet higher expectations, but only by
ensuring that a broader range of software applications are
available. Teachers need to receive more adequate training to
prepare students to use the tools more effectively. Even more
important is that teachers need to develop an understanding to
better evaluate the needs for future technologies to be
purchased in the district. It is time that we place less emphasis
on making sure that we have what neighboring districts have
because, “The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we
solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in
technological glory” (Postman, 1990). Instead we need to begin
to place an emphasis on understanding if these technologies’
benefits are worth their costs.
Technology’s Impacts 15
References
Bowers, C.A. (1988). The Cultural Dimensions of Educational Computing:
Understanding the Non-Neutrality of Technology. New York, NY: Teachers
College Press.
Cooper, Joel, & Weaver, Kimberlee D. (2003). Gender and Computers: Understanding
The Digital Divide. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cypress Elementary School District (2008). Education Technology Plan 2008-2011.
Cypress, CA: Troy Hunt. Retrieved September 20, 2008. Retrieved from:
http://www.cypsd.k12.ca.us/tech/documents/CYPSD_TechPlan_2008_Final_CDE.
pdf
DiBello, Lilia C. (2005). Are We Addressing the Digital Divide? Issues, Access, and
Real Commitment. Childhood Education, 81, (4), 239-241.
Lehrer, Jim (1990). [Interview with Neil Postman]. Informing Ourselves to Death.
Retrieved September 20, 2008. Retrieved from:
http://www.frostbytes.com/~jimf/informing.html.
Lever-Duffy, Judy, & McDonald, Jean B. (2008). Teaching and Learning with
Technology. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Postman, Neil (1986). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show
Business. New York, NY: Penguin Books, Inc.
Postman, Neil (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York,
NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Technology’s Impacts 16