Of course, this was a fun game when you only had 48K of memory to burn, and it certainly taught the value of careful planning, but it wasn't really educational (maybe it was too fun to let us use in class in the early 80's).
My real first introduction to ed tech in school was to drill and kill math problems. My teacher would call me in for "extra help" and sit me in front of an Apple II+ (64K--moving up!!!). I remember pushing through a bunch of math problems and whenever I was stuck, the computer would tell me to "keep trying!" and other (not very) helpful prompts.
For the 1980's, that was about it. I took a computer science course in high school that met once or twice per week, where they would teach us BASIC programming. The highlights of our work for me were to get the screen to produce the verse lyric to "Time of the Season" by the Zombies (What's your name....who's your Daddy," etc with perfect timing--not as easy as you might think--and to reproduce the first screen from Donkey Kong in line-for-line detail.
Now, this was useful and fun in that it taught me about computational thinking, which I wish I had been given more teaching about, as it really is a valuable skill that I cannot believe is not written into our State Standards. Maybe in the next ten years we will begin teaching this most important skill of the last thirty years in our classrooms. That thirty-year delay seems about right (irony noted?).
Second stage, in my work as a teacher, I have frequently used technology to enhance the learning of my students. I have always been about them using technology to do things that they haven't been able to do before. I was never that interested in Power Points instead of Poster Projects. I have been more about using probeware in my classrooms to collect data, and excel to visualize it. These are powerful, 21st-century applications that I had used in my own experiences in a real genetics laboratory.
Also, I have been drawn to video. Teaching kids to speak visually is an incredibly important skill, and the potential for new types of projects and expression is enormous. I have always thought that the process of planning a truly original media project is very challenging for students, and I have been shocked to find out how few of them are able to either make animations like in Scratch programming, or to produce and edit original video content.
My culminating project for my Environmental Science course is a video project called Project Atlantic, in which students are required to research an energy topic, interview community members and produce a film with music, proper transitions, etc, and present it to the public. They have to collect data, come up with a storyboard and decide how to make it all come to life. Here is a sample:
I am convinced that this is what people are talking about when they use the "R" in SAMR. This was not possible before this technology was available--Chromebooks, Flip Cameras, WeVideo, etc.
As for the future, I see so many possibilities. The emergence of virtual worlds will allow students to me immersed in moments of history, to participate in distant gatherings and discussions as avatars, and to rapidly assimilate new information as changes take place.
Another, simpler but also desirable outcome is that I picture a world where schools can actually become self-paced learning centers rather than top-down lecture halls. Students are pre-assessed and then placed into modular systems that effectively teach and test skills. This frees teachers to help with what students do not understand, rather than having to "stand and deliver" to disinterested crowds who are taking in ten to twenty percent of what they are exposed to. In this way, students can learn at a pace that suits them, and pursue 'meatspace' experiences that enhance and expand on their learning. Ultimately, this is the only way that our current proficiency-based learning requirements can be met.
Here's hoping!
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