A Disappearing Act for Technology

“10,000 hours to master anything” – that’s according to Malcolm Gladwell anyway!  While many have plenty to say about the exact number of hours it takes to master something, the 10,000 hour rule does make me think about the number of hours I have spent practicing -  practicing music, scuba diving, and even technology.  You see when I play my trumpet I am not just attempting a physical response from the instrument; I am after the expression, the nuance, the emotion – the stuff that makes my sound different than that of the person next to me, I am working towards making the instrument sing from me.  And when you listen to the very best, my personal idle Wynton Marsalis for example, if you close your eyes you forget about the instrument, you don’t think of the trumpet, you just hear the song, the music and the feelings that come  uniquely from Wynton Marsalis.  The trumpet becomes invisible.

And for me, scuba diving is really no different from music.  You have all that equipment and you make a big splash when you enter the water, but really if you want to see the fish you have to let the equipment become invisible.  You need to take time to watch how the fish move, how the plants move with the ocean’s currents, to feel the movement of the water and then just let yourself be at one with it all.  The moment you start thinking too much about the equipment, kicking everywhere, breathing out of control – that’s when you won’t see anything.  You wear the dive equipment so you can blend and camouflage into the underwater environment.

Reading Joshua Benton’s ideas When web users cross the Gladwell 10,000 hour standard 

Well, I can think of one area where lots of people are crossing 10,000 hours of time invested: using the Internet.

And unlike watching TV — where the rewards for your couch labor amount to mastery of your Tivo and better control of your remote — after 10,000 hours online, you’re a vastly smarter Internet user than you were at the start. You’ve stopped using Internet Explorer. You’ve abandoned the embarrassing email address. Your Google-fu is finely honed. Maybe you’ve messed around with RSS. Maybe you’ve got a smartphone and know how to swim between apps. In other words, the return on time investment isn’t just important for creators of technology; it’s also important to its users, who move past early awkwardness to feeling more like natives.

One recent study estimated Internet users spend 17 hours a week online; another one found for teens the number is 31 hours. At that rate, teens would get to 10,000 hours in a little over six years.

I have to wonder how many hours I’ve clocked with technology – I’m pretty certain it’s not nearly 10,000, but I do know I’ve at least invested a fair share.  I’ve taken some courses, I’ve gone to conferences and I’ve deliberately put myself into the sometimes awkward situation of working with technology when I didn’t know how it would turn out.  I did my homework and I practiced.  I’m not quite at 10,000 hours of mastery, but I do know I am now able to spend a little less time thinking about the “equipment” as I try to camouflage into my student’s digitally native and/or web-native world.

So some say integrate, Jeff Utecht says embed,   and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach in her comment to Jeff says seamless. 

Integration folks started with the seamless integration concept. I like that…even better than grafting cause it is invisible.

I compare it to your heating and cooling system. When do you think of the air conditioner? When it quits working right? Technology should be like that. Seamless–invisible –not in the forefront. The only time technology should be the focus is when it isn’t working.

I myself like the idea of camouflaging the IT into learning – kind of like an octopus – who will look the way it needs to look depending on the situation and environment it is in.  I also like to think that using technology in the classroom is really an art.  Just as Wynton expresses the music through the tool (in his case the trumpet), I like the idea of expressing the standards, the philosophy, the curriculum – the importance of what is happening in the classroom,  with a tool – and for my subject using technology as that tool has helped me to express what I always wanted to in my teaching.

Which brings me to the thought – whether we are talking about integration, or embedding or seamless connections or camouflaging or art….what happens if the teacher has not taken the time to practice with the tool?  The issue as I see it, is that without practice, the tool is just awkward, cumbersome and something that you can’t stop thinking about.   You have to practice technology, so that like a popular shoe company says, eventually you can “just do it.”  If you can’t stop thinking about the tool you probably can’t make it invisible, seamless, integrated, embedded or camouflaged into your curriculum.

Teachers and schools who desire an integrated model for technology in the classroom must first and foremost invest in time, training and support for practicing technology.   And in order to provide support, schools and teachers need to understand what they don’t know and what they are not “uncovering” in their curriculum.  In my posting NETS a Fish Tale I made a case for taking the time to survey your school to better understand what is really being taught with regard to technology.  Any school wanting to ensure that students are meeting technology standards must in addition to checking on student achievements in technology, also observe teachers.   Teacher observations should be completed with the interest of informing professional growth, and in a school that desires an integrated model for technology, teacher observations forms should include teaching standards like those found in NETS for Teachers.  Although some teachers view observations as part of an evaluation-process, observations of a teacher’s technology usage and experience should rather be used as a tool for informing next steps of support and training in technology.  While implementing NETS for Teachers into a professional growth and evaluation scheme might sound intimidating to some, it is a necessary step for a school determined to make change in using technology to transform student learning experiences.  Working towards the higher levels of The Technology Integration Matrix will require professional growth and practice, and without teacher-tech observations, the practice of technology is not always purposeful.

Many have likely heard the musician’s quote about practice:

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice.  Practice.  Practice.

And really I think it’s the same with technology.  Whether you embed, make seamless, integrate or camouflage the technology into curriculum, it all takes practice, practice, practice.  Hopefully not 10,000 hours of it, but schools that want to ensure that students are meeting technology standards within an integrated model must also ensure that they are providing time, training and support for teachers to practice, practice, practice!