Last night I had a wholly unique experience. I was interviewed at a talk radio station, one with a giant picture of Rush Limbaugh on the wall. The show was called Viewpoints, and the first sentence was, “Why should we be bringing technology into our classrooms, when our kids aren’t learning the basics?” But by the third sentence, it was clear that everyone was on the same page, in terms of preparing our children for their future. It was an entirely enjoyable experience.
I did end out with a note pad of points that I wanted to insert into the conversation, but never got around to. 50 minutes can go by really fast.
- Kids don’t really need us to be getting experience with technology. They’re getting that on their own. They are learning to play the technology. They need us to help them learn to work the technology.
- “The future is here. It’s just unevenly distributed.” William Gibson
- The challenge with overwhelming information is not, how do I manage all of this information?” The challenge is “How do I get my message through the storm of all of this information?”
- In the entire day of staff development, here in Carteret County, we almost never used the term technology. It was always information, communication, processing, analyzing, expressing ideas, broadcasting. Technology was in the conversation, but no more than we would mention words like pencil or paper.
2¢ worth.
a. We need to keep your points 1 and 2 in mind together: SOME kids are learning this themselves, others don’t even live in the world created by this technology. “Uneven” is an understatement.
b. Your number 3 is still one-sided. I would suggest something more along the lines of “when does information become noise?” Thoughtful dialogue is more than bits and bytes. Reliance on forums of discussion with no threshhold for entry or exit has its upside, but it has a very definite downside as well. Narcissism as well as attention deficit are the dark side of cyberspace (to use an old and under-listened-to term of Mr. Gibson’s).
c. Your fourth point is exactly on the spot. Technology — media — is not the issue, though we and the kids may use it to wrestle with the issues.
Keep up the good work (and I’m looking forward to your NH visit next week).
–Jeff Taylor
The Computer Curmudgeon
I worked in an enviroment where point 2 was not a problem for us as we had the upper hand when it came to funding, but with all the resource we failed points 3 and 4. Where I am from we have many schools that are doing exactly this. We have brilliant educators that are not engaging in this kind of discussion and applying their skill to different media that may just engage the “at risk” students.
We need to work with our skilled educators and help them see that when we integrate the student into the curriculum we see that the use of technologies will in deed enrich the learning expereince.