From Apples to Androids

Apple IIC

When I was a child my father left the house one Saturday morning and returned several hours later with what would be our family's first computer, an Apple IIC. Being the third boy out of four, I knew that my place in the pecking order would mean limited time on the computer. And I was right. My oldest brother got to spend the most amount of time on the computer. So much so that his vast knowledge of and experience with computers would shape his professional life. And, if he is to be believed, get him an FBI file before graduating high school. I would, occasionally, get to play on the computer. But nothing so significant as to hook me for life. Not then, anyway.

I would first have the opportunity to use computers in school once I got to middle school. From Oregon Trail to typing tutors to Logo. Still, none of these opportunities really sparked an interest in technology within me. They did, however, engage my problem solving skills in ways that traditional educational activities had rarely done. And this was not insignificant. By the time I graduated from middle school, I had already decided that I would pursue becoming a Mathematics teacher as a career. This decision was no doubt influenced by my interest in problem solving.

I did not get to use our home computer for anything school related until I was in high school. By then we had switched to an IBM desktop. I never had to write a research paper on a typewriter. From what I can tell about the ease of typewriter use compared to computer use this is a blessing. By the time I graduated from high school I had already taken a computer class. The class covered saving files, writing documents, and other basic computer skills. At this point, my oldest brother was already a Computer Science major in college and was well acquainted with the world of the internet, modems, and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). I had never even been "online" before.

That fall, when I arrived at college, every dorm was equipped with its own computer lab for students to go online (using Netscape), complete papers, assignments, and send and receive emails. This mostly consisted of forwarding Star Wars or Monty Python scripts to your friends and acquaintances. But still, it was my first venture into the world of online, personal computing. My Honors Calculus classes even required a lab portion utilizing Mathematica. My graphing calculator, which I barely knew how to use, no longer seemed so high-tech.

It was now clear that technology was not only going to redefine what education in general would look like in the future, but it would also redefine what mathematics education would look like in particular and the tools, ideas, and concepts to which mathematics students would have access.

A few years later while I was doing my student teaching, my supervising teacher had managed to get a classroom set of TI-92 graphing calculators.

The TI-92

The TI-92 was both powerful and relatively easy to use. For the first time in my experience, high school students were in possession of the latest commercially available graphing technology. The temporal distance between innovation and access was becoming drastically shorter.

Students would now be able to generate graphs quicker than ever and spend more time focusing on understanding why the graphs have the features they have. Students would be able to analyze massive amounts of data in seconds and spend more time reaching valuable, meaningful conclusions. Schools would have to adjust to keep up.

A few months after I graduated from college, the class of 2012 was starting Kindergarten. It is doubtful that their kindergarten teachers were adequately trained on how to prepare young minds for a world in which most if not all of those same students would own a cell phone before they graduated from high school.

Motorola Droid Maxx

A phone that could take pictures, record video, access the internet, play music and games, scan for viruses, check email, locate them with GPS coordinates, measure heart rate, and store more files than the computer already on the teacher's desk. Not to mention the countless other capabilities that I cannot possibly list here.

 For the first time in my teaching career, I have students with smart watches. Watches that can connect to their phones using bluetooth technology. The same bluetooth technology that allows their phones to connect wirelessly to speakers and headphones. The phone never even has to leave their pocket. 

Tablets. eReaders. 3D printing. The Cicret bracelet. And this barely scratches the surface of personal technology. Industrial technology represents another field replete with possibilities. 

Technology as a part of daily life is not something that schools control. It is a fact of life that schools must either acknowledge or deny. These dispositions, however, are not without their consequences. To acknowledge the role of technology in daily life means that schools must accept this as part of their curriculum. Preparing students for a world in which technology of all kinds is as ubiquitous as political ads in an election season becomes part of their mission.

To deny the role of technology in daily life and not take it seriously when planning curriculum means we are preparing students for a world that no longer exists. And one that likely never will again. I hope we as educators would never be so foolish.

 If we want our students to have a chance, the choice is pretty clear.