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KAYSVILLE — When State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson was working as a principal in the Davis School District, one of her primary goals was equipping teachers with computers.
"Davis was a forerunner in that space," Dickson said. "Davis District was one who was really working hard to make technology happen in every single school, and eventually in every classroom."
On Tuesday, Dickson returned to her former district — this time as the state superintendent of public instruction — for an event to highlight digital education and technology in schools.
Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, spoke to a room full of district administrators and educators at Kay's Creek Elementary, outlining ways that schools can not only utilize technology, but harness it in ways that improve learning outcomes for students and foster healthy relationships with technology.
Closing the digital divide
"It's critical in the world that we live in. You've got to have access (to technology) if you're going to be able to have opportunity," Culatta said.
While Utah has made great strides in improving access to technology — something Culatta noted — there is still what he calls a "digital use divide." Essentially, this is a divide between how technology is used in education. Culatta broke the concept down into two categories, the first being passive learning with technology.
"That tends to be when we have a device and we're pushing content out to a kid," Culatta said. "Just content dump out through a screen."
Think PowerPoint slides to present a lecture.
The second, more preferable category, is active learning with technology or "using technology to design and create and build and problem-solve and collaborate," he said.
"What you start to now see is this divide — and it's a real divide — between schools where we've prioritized training teachers how to envision how technology can be used, (and) using technology in a very active way to build all these skills that are critical for future learning, and life for kids and schools where we have this, sort of, just get technology in the hands of students. And now, instead of having a worksheet, we have a PDF on the screen. This is not effective learning," Culatta said.
Real magic can happen, he said, when teachers are equipped with the knowledge and tools to use technology in transformational ways.
Setting conditions for digital well-being
Culatta emphasized that schools need to be thoughtful when setting conditions for digital well-being. But what does this mean?
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, people's transition into the digital world was accelerated. It's possible that you participated in a virtual birthday party or even a wedding as a result of the pandemic and a sudden shift to life online.
In his research looking into setting conditions for digital well-being for kids, Culatta said that he came across two primary challenges. The first, he said, is that conversations with kids about technology are too negative and too narrow.
He used an example of his son learning to play the piano.
"I was sitting here listening to his piano lesson and I thought, what would it be like if his piano teacher came in and said, 'Benjamin, today we're going to talk about all the wrong notes and you're going to learn all the notes not to play; and boy, if you ever play that wrong note you're going to be in trouble,'" Culatta said. "You can't learn a complex skill by being told the things not to do. The only way you learn a complex skill is by practicing the acts you want to be able to demonstrate."
He said that when teaching kids about digital technology, it shouldn't become a list of don'ts but instead a demonstration of positive ways to use technology in constructive ways.
He also talked about the idea of screen time versus screen value. Essentially, it's teaching kids that there are some digital activities that provide tremendous value while others don't.
Culatta said the dive into technology and emerging phenomenons like artificial intelligence has led to one of the most important opportunities to reimagine and redesign learning, "probably that we'll see in our lifetime."
"If we can teach that balance, it gets really awesome," Culatta said. "If we figure out how we can create learning experiences where we're using these tools to empower learners to supercharge their creativity, to help them really think about using technology in those active ways or solving problems. When we do that, the future looks really bright."
