Is the pen mightier than the laptop?
I've been astounded recently by the number of people who seem to think that I'm some mad sort of ed tech evangelist who doesn't own a pen. Never once have I chanted slogans such as, "Down with the Biro!" And, yes, to people's amazement I use pens every day both to compose my thoughts and to help me think. So, it's with that in mind I want to share a little something with you on why and how I use mobile technology.
Let's start with this short exercise. Do you remember sitting in maths class at school solving problems like:
"A train leaves Falkirk at 9.05am and travels at an average speed of 80km per hour. The train arrives in Edinburgh at 9.40am. What is the distance from Falkirk to Edinburgh?"
Go on! Try it. See if you can work out the answer before you scroll down.
If anyone is interested, purely to indulge my inner maths geek, the answer is 46.7km rounded to 1 decimal place. But more importantly, how many of you reached for a pen to work out the answer? Or did you grab for your phone to use the calculator app?
Would it amaze people to realise that I too used a pen to do this calculation. I actually asked this question of a friend. Interestingly she grabbed for a pen and paper instantly too and there is nothing wrong or weird about that! But in asking the same question of her daughter, she grabbed for her phone to use the calculator app.
Similarly, as part of my #H818 project, one student who took part in the course was reflecting on how blogging could benefit her students in their reflective practice, but then at the end of the discussion immediately changed her mind drawing the conclusion that there was something to be gained from using a pen.
With this in mind I started reading and what I discovered was that its all about distance, speed and time. Let me explain.
A cursory review of some internet sources points to the fact that pen and paper learning slows the learning process down. Moreover, the physical process of crafting a word with a pen activates the brain's creative processes. Creativity is known to be the highest level of Blooms taxonomy where the highest order if thinking skills are engaged. So in mathematical terms...
pen = slow = creative = deep learning.
So the reason pen and paper learning is deemed better isn't anything to do with wrote learning being better than other forms of learning. It's about slowing down the pace of learning and engaging our creativity to enable the generation of new knowledge.
As a maths teacher I can totally identify with the sentiment that students nedd to use a pen and paper to slow down their thinking process. EVen when I demonstrate online I always use my smart pen to physically draw on the screen. So, just to be clear, the pen industry has nothing to fear from online education.
Pens help us to generate new knowledge through a creative process. But, as a student of online and distance education, I've seen this same argument weaponised to undermine online education. Can't the two co-exist? I mean, is that not the point of blended learning in its true sense.
I've argued this point before, blended learning is not what we have seen in schools during covid-19. Blended (or hybrid) learning includes mixed modalities, pen and paper, face to face, independent research, discussion, online collaboration, sharing, creating and so many other skills which are valuable for life beyond school, college or university.
But what we've seen is an emergency transition to online learning facilitated by teachers who are working as fast as they can to support their students. That's not the same as having a curriculum which is planned and executed specifically with the intention of being delivered online. Yes, our curriculum was never designed to be delivered in this way. So, why do it? We're doing this not because it's a better way to learn, but rather because we're trying to keep our students safe.
However, more alarming is the implications that online learning isn't a creative process. When students use their pen and paper to craft a story about their life experiences, then use technology to add videos, pictures, animations, maybe include a quiz and share via a blog. Then watch as those same students get excited when their readers leave comments and potentially have conversations with people on the other side of the world... perhaps its more a question of using technology to take the creativity offered by a pen to the next level.
Or maybe, if we stop to recognise that learning can take place outside the classroom, then the concept of using mobile technology to capture our best learning moments (Open University, 2021) highlights one of the benefits a pen and paper can never provide.
Or better still, what if we as educators stop the rhetoric of one upmanship and realise that all of the tools that inspire creativity, whether it be a pen or a laptop all offer the opportunity to be creative in different ways.
Follow me on twitter @McintoshMclean.
References
Open University (2021) Innovating Pedagogy 2021 [Online]. Available at: https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2021.pdf (Accessed 1st February 2021).
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