At the Science Leadership Academy, we encourage current upperclassmen to participate when we interview incoming students. We prepare these budding leaders to be patient and professional when sitting across from students who are only one to three years younger than they are — and our kids exceed our best expectations. Yet, among the student body, there is one wrong way to answer our questions about why they’ve applied: “I hear you’ve got laptops.”

Our students smile warmly at this, but, despite their training, most reflexively attempt to meet their teacher’s eye. We look back knowingly and continue the conversation, aware that, for many eighth graders, going to school carrying a personal laptop and no textbooks seems otherworldly. Much as they deny it, the technology was just as cool to our current students when they sat across the table. It’s just that with each hour spent in our environment their understanding of what makes a school progressive has matured — and has put the technology in its right place.



It’s fun watching this year’s freshmen begin this growth process — for their trials mirror the school’s own developing ideas on the subject of technology. They struggle against the frequent distractions popping into their view. Not long ago, students would ball up scraps of notebook paper and pass them around the room. They now instant message three friends at once. Boys would tuck copies of Sports Illustrated under their textbooks — now they open another tab at SI.com. They no longer fold elaborate fortune-tellers out of loose-leaf; instead they go online to check horoscopes or play role-play games. When I spoke at a conference last year on being a young teacher in a progressive technology school, the most important understanding shared was that I was not as interesting as what they could pull up on their screens. I am overmatched in most battles for my students’ attention.

Classroom management has a new language. The sternest words in my arsenal are “Screens down.” Yet, I am a forgiving disciplinarian, because I too fight distractions.

New technology provides sexy alternatives to older methods of instruction and assessment. In the same conference, I spoke about my “podcast year” — when, as a first year teacher, I discovered the joy of digital microphones. Every piece of creative writing was recorded, an activity that ate up entire class periods. By the time I reached a unit where it actually made sense to capture student voice (speeches), the kids were ready to fight me. I too had allowed myself to be distracted.

Technology is also expensive. The kids have to buy insurance, and they constantly lose and replace parts. Schools feel the pinch, too. There is the myth about the Soviets using a pencil when we spent millions developing a pen — and I’m sure that’s how many feel about schools using technology. In hard economic times, there certainly is an argument to be made against unnecessary expenses.

Still, one should ask why our older students cringe when the technology is put at the forefront. They understand, most importantly, that our staff’s greatest strengths are our love for them and our progressive pedagogy. But also, they know that the distractions that attract 13-year-olds and confound young teachers are only themselves distractions from the real benefits of technology.

First is the communication. I rarely grade alone. The students rarely do their homework in isolation. The same chatting software that, when mismanaged, give us fits in our classrooms, enables us to collaborate in dynamic ways. Students now continue fiery classroom debates when they get home from school. They now walk each other through difficult readings of “The Odyssey” and “Hamlet” and return to class with stronger understandings. Our projects are regularly published — which leads to comments and ongoing conversations with the outside world.

As important as it is for students to expand their sense of community and learn to collaborate — it is more crucial that they learn how to sift thoughtfully through increasing amounts of information. The Internet presents a unique challenge to scholarship — many of the questions that once required extensive research can now be answered with 10-minute visits to Google. The issue now is distinguishing between rich resources and the online collection of surface facts, misinformation, and inexcusable lies that masquerade as the truth. It will be hard for our students to be thoughtful citizens without this ability to discern the useful from the irrelevant. This is especially clear during this election season. If they are never asked to practice dealing with this new onslaught of information, they will have to practice when the stakes are much higher.

I was once asked in a mock interview how to best use technology in the classroom. My deadpan answer, “Very carefully,” drew laughs from the audience of undergraduates. After three years, my philosophy hasn’t changed. When prudently used, the technology prepares our students to make the most of a world that we can’t yet imagine.