Finley – The 3 Perils of Techno-Narcissism

Todd Finley

@finleyt on Twitter

Confession time: I don’t actually enjoy teaching with technology. Making backup plans in case the campus Wi-Fi cuts off; rehearsing where and what to click; navigating a screen, while trying to talk coherently to students at the same time; watching learners struggle with slow booting computers…all those issues make me ache for the halcyon days when instructors taught with nothing more than chalk and a can-do attitude.

Mark Fijor, of New School Technology feels me: “Integrating any technology into the classroom can be messy, clumsy, challenging and downright frustrating.”

In any case, none of those concerns matter because classroom technology is about the students, not the teacher. During my big head days—a literal and figurative condition—I believed that tech competence distinguished me as an innovator. Look what I made with html! Such giant self-regard kept me from realizing that the only purpose of classroom technology is for kids to learn, create, collaborate, and save the world.

Three Ego-Driven Tech Integration Mistakes

Each of my three major tech-related teaching mistakes occurred because I was operating from the Narcissus playbook. Here they are:

  1. Showing off.

Using technology unnecessarily and/or emphasizing eye-candy occur when we forget to prioritize content. Those Prezi zooming transitions, for example, make kids feel like they’re flying, but distract from content. Another example: You know what’s better than online white boards? Real white boards or paper—neither of which require login information. Too often I have conflated cool looking tech with robust 21st century pedagogy.

  1. Introducing technology without also democratizing the class culture.

Choosing technology for students and directing a class to “click here and wait for further instructions” denies students opportunities to collaborate with each other in order to produce and share knowledge. Altering the mode of delivery (think online instructors lecturing) is an incremental advancement. Transformational advancements occur when teachers share expert status with worldwide experts who can be contacted electronically and students. That means that student voices should dominate class time. It might be hard on the ego, but we’re at the end of the top-down-one-to-thirty information transmission era.

  1. Thinking you’ve learned enough about technology.

I’m more likely to be arrested for trafficking Mexican black tar heroin than keeping up with advancements in teaching and learning technology. Just when I start to feel like a tech pro, a powerful new app interrupts my narcissistic fantasy and I realize it’s time to return to my personal development plan: learning about new tech on Twitter, watching YouTube software walk-throughs, listening to early adopters on Voxer, and catching up on edtech blogs.

Ultimately, “The only way to make sense out of change,” according to English philosopher Alan Watts, “is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” But watch your step. Like it or not, this dance partner is going to lead.