technology in the classroom

During this last week of classroom observations, I've seen some fairly dramatic differences in the way student teachers conduct their classes. This has been particularly true in terms of multimodal teaching. The two teachers I've observed are basically polar opposites in terms of implementing technology into their classrooms. The first teacher used the smart board continuously. He posted all his notes and instructions up on the screen. His lectures had to do with computer games and the major in-class project that I witnessed involved watching videos on youtube.
The second teacher never once used any technology. Her students did not open their laptops at any time. The in-class writing assignment was done with pen and paper and the lesson for the day involved MLA and citation.

Any conclusions I could draw regarding which methods were more effective would be purely subjective, and a week of observations is hardly enough time to make any sweeping conclusions. But for what it's worth, the students in the second class were a lot more engaged. The class opened with the free write and I was singularly impressed with the shear volume of material each of the students seemed to be producing. I can't attest to the quality of their work, but for fifteen solid minutes the class was silent and twenty-five freshmen sat hunched over their pages scribbling away. Later, when discussing MLA citation formatting (a less than thrilling topic, by any standards) the students continuously raised their hands and asked pertinent questions. I never once saw this level of involvement in the first class. The strongest single memory I have from the technology heavy class was looking around and thinking "wow, I have never seen so many people look so bored while browsing through youtube."

Again, I'm not going to make any sweeping judgments about technology in classrooms. I'm not even going to say that one of the teachers was better than the other. There are tons of factors to consider.

But this experience does highlight for me the word of caution in the introduction to Multimodal Composing: Resources for Teachers, technology is not a silver bullet. In and of itself multimodal teaching won't fix whatever problems a classroom might otherwise have. Instead, "It is only teachers learning about new approaches to composing and creating meaning through texts that will catalyze changes in composition classrooms" (6).