Pedagogical Ponderings

No one is more surprised than I that I’m so into technology. As I reflect on my professional practice and meander through the web and libraries in search of lesson ideas, I’m constantly thinking about what role technology can or should play in the ideas I come upon. One recent inspiration has been the Smart Board Podcast, hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger out of Canada (www.pdtogo.com). While the interactive white boards (IWBs) in our school are not Smart Boards, the podcast has become something of a muse for me. Far from brand pandering Ben and Joan’s program is informative, humorous, inspirational, thought-provoking and, for me at least, fairly addictive. I download the shows onto my iPod and listen and re-listen frequently. I've also reviewed and adapted some of the lessons featured on each program and made available in PDF form.

This summer as I traveled in West Africa (the ‘West African Summer’ audio-photo journal link is coming soon) I attempted to quell my pdtogo jones and download and listen to the series as they looked back over the year and re-played a set of “best of” shows. One such replay was of episode #100 where the hosts queried, “Is there a Smart Board pedagogy?”

My immediate thought was a resounding “No! Of course not.” That notion, I thought, was akin to asking if there’s a pen and paper pedagogy, or is there a blackboard pedagogy? These are the tools of pedagogy – pdagogy being defined as the principles and practice of teaching - but they are not pedagogy. My reasoning echoes the observations of one of the episode panelists who stated, “Good teaching is good teaching.” I know teachers who mistake the tool for the teaching. Further, I think, it’s possible to discern a teacher’s pedagogy by the way they use (or don’t use) such tools as IWBs. Again, the tools are the servants of the pedagogy.

My pedagogical practice is one that places a premium on research-based strategies that provide high student engagement and interaction. Inquiry, projects, small group, and the coaching and facilitation of independent learning options are approaches foundational to my instruction. My IWB, along with other high and low tech tools enable me to develop and deliver my kind of effective lesson. Given my particular pedagogical bent one of my professional development quests is to identify how to effectively and efficiently use technology to create such learning experiences. With an instructional tool like an IWB the further challenge is to find ways to get the board’s pen into my students’ hands and my students up to the board. Ditto for the CPS “Clickers”, my bank of Macs, the document camera, and my LCD projector. How close can I get my kids to meaningful, direct interaction with these tools? How often should they be used? What’s the right balance of high and low tech? These are among the many questions on which I’m currently reflecting.