Integrating Content, Teaching, and Technology

There is much discussion of why teachers do not quickly adopt technology tools in their classrooms. Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler at Michigan State wrote a very thoughtful article in the Teacher College Record in 2006 that provides a good way of understanding why teachers have such difficulty and providing a framework and strategies for addressing these issues.

Their ideas of most easily captured by this figure in which they note that teaching with technology requires that the instructor integrate knowledge about content, teaching (pedagogy) and technology.

The authors write,

"our framework (Figure 4) emphasizes the connections, interactions, affordances, and constraints between and among content, pedagogy, and technology" (p. 1025).

Later in their discussion they also write,

"The addition of a new technology is not the same as adding another module to a course. It often raises fundamental questions about content and pedagogy that can overwhelm even experienced instructors" (emphasis mine) (p. 1030).

Too often in discussions about the failure of teachers to adopt new technologies, we are failing to acknowledge the complexity of the task we are asking them to take on. This is not say that educators are excused from trying new forms of instruction and new technologies, but there is much to learn and we also need more help in learning these new tools. For more work by Mishra see his blog and other writings.

Bonk's Test for Online Instruction

Curt Bonk provides a humorous, but only too accurate test for what it takes to be an effective online instructor. Here is his test for phase 1, the bar only gets higher from here:

"Phase 1 test. Instructors must put in 100 hours per week and 1,500 hours during an online course. There is a very simple qualifying test here—-potential online instructors are placed in a testing room and asked to try to stay awake for 3 straight days. Toothpicks, Super Glue, coffee, Jolt, Mountain Dew, Fixx, and Red Bull are all freely provided. Those who can stay awake are allowed to venture to Phase 2 of the testing. Those who simultaneously use all the supplied items found in the room can skip Phase 2 and move right to Phase 3."

The sad point here is that those of us who are advocates for using technology often wonder why people don't want to use this technology. Bonk's list is a good reminder of why teaching online is hard, frustrating and challenging and perhaps only approached by the few who can pass his test.

For these approaches to become more commonplace it is up to those of us who think this work is important and ultimately a powerful addition to other instructional approaches to design systems that do not require passing this test.

We are still far from this, but remember that this technology is only 10-15 years old and printed books are 500 years old and lectures are at least 10,000 years old..... not a surprise that we are better at using books and lectures to teach than the web.