Flashback from 1999: Teachers' Technology Fears and Hopes

Peter Gow

This material comes from an early 1999 poll of teachers in New England. It's Interesting to muse on what has come true and what hasn't (yet?). 

Where were you in 1999, and what were your hopes and fears for education technology? 
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Were you right or wrong?

Fears Relating to the Future of Technology in Education: 


Fears relating to teacher life

• real change won’t come soon enough
• learning to use takes so much time
• I won’ t ever figure it out
• if I don’t get it I won’t be able to teach it effectively
• technology will suck up all our money and give too little in return
• so much new stuff and new applications we’ll be overwhelmed
• we’ll always be catching up and never learn to use it wisely

Fears relating to students and student learning

• kids will become indiscriminate in use of references
• too easy to be dishonest
• it won’t help and it’s bad
• poor quality of sources
• that the Internet will continue to be perceived as a valuable and unique teaching resource (it’s not!)

Fears relating to curriculum and assessment

• all homework will become simplified and flat linguistically
• teachers and students will not be creative, self-motivated, curious, imaginative
• diminished importance of books
• less time for teacher collaboration and conversation

Fears relating to learning in general

• people will become less creative with their hands, bodies, “natural things”; learning will become only cerebral
• learning will slow due to added preparation time for teaching
• kids will concentrate on the tools per se and not on using them effectively

General concerns

• regulations
• cost of access
• government censorship and control of access

Hopes relating to the future of technology in education:

Hopes relating to teacher life

• it’ll be wireless and easy to use
• mastery will come sooner than we think
• I can get a handle on it all
• we will become familiar with technologies that can benefit us in and out of school
• access to university and government libraries
• anyone can submit legible or well-organized written work
• access to the growing knowledge base will increase
• more information will be accessible

Hopes relating to student learning

• knowledge is power
• it’ll make work easier
• people will be empowered and independent
• promotes editing and rewriting process
• increasing clarity of science concepts with graphics capability
• raise quality of teaching by making more mindful and knowledgeable teachers
• raise quality of learning by really allowing kids to reach beyond “the text/the classroom etc.”
• students will be more actively engaged in their own learning
• learning can become more spontaneous

Hopes relating to curriculum and assessment

• expand student and teacher knowledge and stimulate interest
• it’ll make curriculum more exciting
• help us teach students more efficiently
• school will be more interesting and real
• it’ll make language labs unnecessary

General reasons for optimism

• democratization of access to information
• freedom of speech
• we’ll become wiser
• low-cost access for all

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