Technology: The Fourth Teacher

By Susan Davis

You may have never heard of the Reggio Emilia Approach® to education. Nonetheless, it has had a profound impact on the evolution of how we think about teaching and learning.

A big piece of the Reggio Emilia philosophy holds that the environment plays an essential role in learning, and the intentional design of the learning space is part of the work of the educator. Mary Ann Biermeier, writing for Young Children, the journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, explains that “an environment … encircles the child with three ‘teachers,’ or protagonists. The first teacher—the parent—takes on the role of active partner and guide in the education of the child. The second is the classroom teacher. … The third teacher is the environment—a setting designed to be not only functional but also beautiful and reflective of the child’s learning.”

I propose that a fourth teacher must now be accounted for in our learning spaces: technology. At one time, we might have viewed technology simply as a piece of the overall learning environment. Now, in the post-lockdown world of independent schools, it has emerged as the pulsing presence in the room, the thing we can’t really turn our backs on. Technology pervades our learning spaces, forming its own separate dimension that surrounds us all in an invisible cloak of connectivity.

So, how does technology’s presence as a fourth teacher affect the classrooms, learning commons, playgrounds, makerspaces, and media centers of our schools? I’ve turned to past and present fellows from the ATLIS Leadership Institute (ALI) to hear what this might look like in today’s learning spaces.

Students are Fundamentally Different Now

Ravendra Persaud, a fellow in the current ALI cohort and academic systems manager for Grace Church School in New York, said he believes a combination of factors coincided to form this new reality. First, we have to recognize we have new generations of students for whom tech is increasingly commonplace. Combine this with how much our interactions with others for the past several years, like it or not, have depended on technology for the rapid adoption of distance-learning tools.

Certainly, there are educators who would like to go back to some imagined “before” time when technology wasn’t all-pervasive, but that’s not possible, according to Persaud. “The students are fundamentally different now,” he explained.

Not only have students clearly ramped up their skills, putting pressure on traditional academic programs, but their “skill acquisition is happening at increasingly younger ages,” he said. In addition, increasing numbers of students have learned basic coding skills on their own through platforms like MicroWorlds and Scratch. Before the pandemic, a techy teacher might have been seen as an outlier. Now it’s the opposite—you are an outlier if you are ignoring technology’s presence in the classroom.

Still, even though students may have a basic understanding of how technology works, Persaud said he worries that this “doesn’t mean they understand it deeply.” They don’t understand that “Googling is not research,” he said, and they don’t know how social media works or what “AI” really means. “They need help understanding the nuances,” he reminded us.

Technology Survival Skills as a Disruptive Force

Lindsay Harlow, director of technology at Westover School in Connecticut, said she sees the signs everywhere that technology has “definitely permeated the classroom.”

Before the pandemic, only a handful of teachers at her school were early adopters of new technologies, and her school barely had a functioning learning management system (LMS). “Posthybrid,” as Harlow referred to where we are now, she noted that her whole school has fully embraced the LMS.

A survey of Westover’s students revealed in 2021 that a significant number wanted to continue recording teachers’ lectures even as they shifted back to learning face to face.

Another notable sign was the growing number of teachers who no longer required that students print their assignments. Harlow said she can remember the last time she heard teachers call for laptops closed in class, and “that’s a definite change.”

Ultimately, Harlow said she believes the “survival mode” of online or hybrid learning permanently disrupted how classrooms work, and students are being listened to when they voice their preference for using technology in the service of learning.

Harlow acknowledged that technology can still spark frustration. Teachers might know how to use the LMS more fully, but “throw Nearpod at them, and they go crazy.” The stress of shifting into survival mode with technology is still with us, even though other uses of technology are more numerous, as well as “so exciting, interactive, and fun,” she said.

Competitive Edge of a Technology-Enriched Classroom

Ed Surjan, educational technology and library director for The Frederick Gunn School in Connecticut, has witnessed the development of “a real division in independent schools” when it comes to technology.

Some schools are better at leveraging lessons learned about the benefits of the technology-enriched classroom than others. In some cases, schools are even experiencing real retrenchment to continuing to develop how technology can work in tandem with best practices for education.

Those schools leading the way by embracing a technology-enriched pedagogy, Surjan said, will have a competitive edge over other schools that are going to be playing catch-up. Leveraging technology to differentiate the student experience, a premium many independent school families think they are paying for, is simply good teaching.

“Technology is tied to pedagogy,” said Surjan. “You cannot separate the two. When you see what is possible in a tech-enhanced classroom when placed in the hands of a well-trained teacher, the result is transformational.”

What Does This Mean for Technology Leaders?

If we accept that technology has stepped into a role as the fourth teacher, what are the implications for independent schools?

First, we need to consult with the learners themselves, to collect and share observational data about what works and what doesn’t. Persaud said we need less direct teaching of tech and more carefully designed instruction “that calls upon the way the world works.”

We must reckon with how the students have had “massive levels of exposure but still have a huge need for understanding,” he said. Ultimately, we need to think about the “architecture and design of the classroom as a space for learning,” alongside technology.

Harlow said she believes we all could “be more intentional as teachers by choosing when and how” we use technology in our learning spaces. In her view, some educators “haven’t quite figured out the purpose for it yet.”

In addition, she said she worries that teachers may be making a critical mistake by assuming that students who are adept with technology have been exposed to digital citizenship as much as we need them to be.

Surjan said he believes edtech professionals need to see themselves as centrally aligned to teaching practice. In addition, school leaders at independent schools should be looking carefully at how they want to evolve teaching practice in relation to technology. In Surjan’s words, they need to move beyond thinking and acting “like technology is radioactive.”

In addition, their teams must work as collaborative partners with the rest of the school staff, and edtech can serve as a primary driver of teachers’ professional development, he said.

Hope and Possibility

In 2011, Lisa Lentz declared in Why Space Matters that “with spatial organization, personalization, technology, and interior design all playing a role in … school design, the environment becomes a ‘third teacher’ that promotes activity, engagement, comfort, and community.”

More than a decade later, technology has permeated nearly all our learning environments. Elevated to the role of the fourth teacher, technology’s presence requires that we can make intentional choices about its design in the service of learning.

Surjan took a moment to imagine the possibilities for us: “There are three large flat-screens in the classroom. One has the content for today. One has the guest speaker from anywhere around the world. The third has the class you are collaborating with from around the world.

There are four whiteboards with projectors where individuals and teams can work. The physical space is enhanced with all the microphones, cameras, and AV you need to make all this work. That’s 50 to 100 grand worth of tech in one classroom.”

Why would you not do everything you could to have a teacher who can use all of this stuff in a maximal way?