I spoke with Joe, one of the students who attended the Engineering Pipeline Program at my place of business. (I was one of the instructors for Joe’s class, as well as the lead designer of the entire program.)
I’m making no effort to quote Joe here. The conversation took place by telephone and I’m working from written notes, so I don’t have his exact words in front of me. (My current smartphone does not have a call recording feature.) I believe I’m accurately paraphrasing what he said.
Q? How would you compare your own use of personal technology like computers and smartphones to your high school classmates?
A. Everyone is on the same page with smartphones–everyone has that all figured out. With computers and laptops there is variation. Some people actually learn how they work, even build their own. Joe was interested, but not as focused on the topic as the real buffs (to use an anachronistic word).
Some students used phones only to text/talk/take pictures. On the other hand, different subcultures did exist. Computer Science class members all extremely interested in how computers work and how to make them or program them. (CS is an elective, so only interested students took the class.) Joe himself is not one of the real computer-focused students, but two of his friends are–they both wrote video games while in high school.
Q)How do you think your average teacher’s tech use (not knowledge, but use) compares to a typical high school student’s? For instance, do they play online games? Use Facebook? Social media? Compare a typical teacher’s proficiency with tech with that of, say, a 10’th grader. If you think you can, consider several types of tech (phones, computers, etc.). Do you see a difference between younger and older teachers at your school? This can be any differences you think are interesting–tech usage, but also teaching styles and
A)There were what Joe calls “Dinosaur” teachers, who he characterized as the older ones. He felt that the younger teachers (under 30 or so) had tech skills enough to not need help, where he and other techie students would often have to assist older teachers.
All teachers, even the dinosaurs, did use technological assistance in teaching, things like smart whiteboards, email, online homework, and turnitin.com to allow assignments to be submitted online and to check for plagiarism. However, there was a visible difference in how fluidly and effectively different teachers used the tools.
Q)Now that you’ve finished your high school education, you’re in a perfect position to make suggestions. How would you improve high school for new students, especially in terms of using newer technology to make learning better, easier, faster or more convenient?
Multiple-choice tests should use hand-held clickers as opposed to Scantrons. Simulations should be used more when teaching sciences and social studies.
Q)What subjects that you took through grade school in general do you think were old-fashioned and won’t help you as an adult? What subjects do you think were left out, that you’ll definitely need?
Other students say that all social studies courses are useless. Joe feels that anything teaching history before the Industrial Revolution is a waste of his time. He also feels that English, after Junior High, is just repetitive, teaching the same topics every year and just making him do the same assignments.
He was not able to name a subject he wished had been part of his primary and secondary education, but which had not been included.
Q.)How would you compare the way you learned technical subjects like chemistry and physics in school to the way the Pipeline Program introduced you to engineering and the utility industry? Do you see a major difference? Which worked better for you? (Be honest!) How can we improve? What should we add and what should we remove from the program.
Schools are less hands-on in teaching technical subjects. There were only “occasional” labs at his school. Our STEM program differs from school in having almost no homework, and not enough review of topics covered.
He also felt that one week is too short for the topics we cover. It feels “crammed”.
Finally, the most valuable material, for Joe, was the career and interpersonal skills covered at the very end. He is confident of his ability to learn technical material on his own, but the writing workshop and practice job interviews were entirely new to him and he felt he had learned useful skills even in that brief exposure. (I’m proud to say that I instructed that segment.)
I was distressed that Joe, who plans to go into a technical field, had so little lab exposure in high school. In my day as a science teacher, half of our class time was spent on hands-on lab work. I’m also interested in his saying our writing practice was useful, because he simultaneously complained about having too many writing assignments in English–which hints to me that the English assignments avoided “practical” skills in favor of highly academic exercises like essays.
I’ll be taking Joe’s comments on my own program to heart when we revamp it for next summer, and I’m hoping someone is working on fixing these issues in the educational system.