Purpose, Pedagogy, and Tech: The Why is the Most Important Part

If you've listened to many people talk about edtech, you've heard this phrase:

"Pedagogy is the driver. Tech is the accelerator."

I 100% believe that's true. We can take good pedagogy and do amazing, absolutely incredible things when we leverage tech to its full potential. 

But, there's a terrifying element of that phrase. 

The terrifying part is this: If the pedagogy is bad, tech enables us to do more harm than we would without putting students on devices. 

Think about that. So often we overlook this fact. If we are providing teachers with devices without coupling those devices with training on how education fundamentally shifts in the digital age, we can actually create a worse educational environment. Let me rephrase that: 

We can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide devices to students and actually cause them to learn less and enjoy it less than they would have without the devices. 

Don't just take my word for it. This is highlighted in an article from Stanford and the Alliance for Excellent Education in the following quote:

[T]he use of simulations/applications in eighth grade and games in the fourth grade positively affected test scores, whereas drill and practice at the eighth grade negatively affected the scores. In science, games … , word processing … , simulations … , and data analysis … all positively affected test scores. And in eighth grade reading, use of computers for writing activities positively affected test scores, but use of computers for grammar/ punctuation or for reading activities (which usually involve drill or tutorials) negatively affected test scores.

Giving students technology won't do anything if the fundamental processes around which we focus our classrooms are incompatible with effective teaching in the 21st century.

So what do we do?

Before we develop training programs and a plethora of professional development options and add 9,000 staff meetings to our already crammed schedule, let's take a step back and ask this question:

What drives our pedagogy? 

Thinking about pedagogy asks us to focus on how we want our students to learn, what strategies we will use as an instructor, or what projects students will complete. The problem is that it doesn't address the heart of the issue. 

The real heart of the issue is the WHY. 

Why do we want our students to learn? 

Why do we teach? 

Why do we invest in our future leaders?

The question of WHY has to be answered before we start talking about HOW we are going to teach. 

So here's my challenge to you. Why do you do what you do? Why do you teach?

Here's my answer:

I teach because I want every student to understand that they are powerful, important, and can make the world a better place, and that there’s at least one person who fiercely believes in their capacity to do that and cares enough about them to help them get there.

When I think about education that way, when I approach my own instruction with that WHY - my classroom changes because if I truly believe that, I can't put a worksheet on a computer and say that I'm doing what I'm meant to do. I can't identify this as my WHY and then not provide students with powerful learning experiences designed to get them where they need to go.

So stop.

Before you plan another lesson using devices, stop. Answer this question: WHY DO YOU TEACH?

Then here's the important part: Actually teach like that matters.