4 Things technology can’t replace

By Christian Howd | June 27, 2007

A History Repeating Don’t get us wrong. At TeachClever, we’re all about using technology to make us better, more productive teachers. For the most part, we are faster, more efficient and effective due to technology. But Andrew Kantor from USA Today points out that technology can’t, or shouldn’t replace everything. Here are four things that technology doesn’t effectively replace and what it means for teachers:

Spelling. Sure spell check is a wonderful tool for editing, but it’s easy to become dependent on it. Rather than learn to spell words correctly, we just wait for the spell check to tell us we’re wrong. So we never learn to spell those challenging words, like dependent, which I spelled wrong typing this article and let spell check fix it. And I’ll probably spell it wrong again next time.

Teaching students spelling and word study are still valuable skills. Most students will create content digitally in their futures, but there will still be a place for writing by hand. And pausing to think about the correct spelling of a word is a waste of time.

Thoughtful writing. With email and any digital form of writing, we can crank out our ideas with little thought, and then revise later if we don’t like what we see. But sometimes we don’t get to the revising, and send off an email that we later regret. Before computers, people had to think carefully about their word choices, because severe editing was just too hard.

Giving students a chance to write on paper as well as with word processors serves the need for thoughtful writing while still providing opportunities to use the revising and editing advantages of the digital form. It’s OK that students don’t type everything.

Math. Calculators are wonderful for difficult calculations, but no one should have difficulty with basic math facts. Relying on calculators for every math problem keeps students from learning the skills they need to function when electronic aids may not be available. Sure you can crank out the tip on your cell phone tip calculator, but should you need to?

Teachers can help students by having them put away the calculators for all but the most challenging problems. This is probably more appropriate for younger grades that are still learning math facts. And why not leverage the power of technology towards learning math facts, by using a website that provides practice.

Building a knowledge base. Google and Wikipedia are perfect for delivering pinpoint knowledge about a specific question. They are indispensable tools when you know what you are looking for. But there is something to be said for browsing and perusing books. It helps to build up a knowledge base. If you don’t know something exists, it’s hard to search for it online. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do effective general research online. Just that the web is perfect for learning about things you want to learn about, while print materials are great for learning about things you didn’t necessarily seek out in the first place. Put another way, a web search starts with you, you type in the topic. But browsing print materials can lead to unexpected learning that happens when you stumble upon a title that you weren’t actively seeking out. Incidentally, some websites are trying to bring this idea to the web.

Teachers can build up their students’ knowledge base by providing time to read, having a collection of good information books on hand for students to browse, and having students supplement online research with print-based materials.

I’ll be the first to admit that I usually go to technology first when I have a problem to solve or a task to complete. But it’s overkill to go to the computer to check the spelling of a word I should know, jot down a grocery list or write a birthday card, calculate a tip at Cracker Barrel, or browse for undiscovered topics of interest and usefulness. In these cases, using technology makes us less productive. Helping students to know when to use technology and when not to is an important skill that might be getting overlooked.

What other areas can you think of where technology hinders productivity? Share in the comments.

Don’t let technology rob you of the fruits of doing things the hard way [USA Today]

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One Response to “4 Things technology can’t replace”

Todd DuLude Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I totally agree! Unfortunately, we have a younger generation that is under the impression that if it is on the internet it is true. They have a hard time understanding that reference books in print went through a process of editing before publishing. In today’s Web 2.0 world publishing is all too easy. Great post… thanks,

Don’t teach harder, teach clever.