My wrist watch is not digital
When talking about the differences between our generation (my generation) and our school youngsters’, I frequently point at my watch (when I remembered to pick it up on my way out of the house). I explain that my watch is not digital. It does one thing, and it well. Digital watches did not exist when I was growing up, and that is an important difference.
You see, with digital watches, you typically have three buttons, instead of the single knob. Using those buttons in various combinations, you can do many things with that watch. I simply can’t remember the combinations, and when I try, I always give up with something blinking on the watch face. VCRs are the same way. You have a few buttons, which, in combination, can do dozens of things. It’s why you might call my VCR, a twelve-o’clock flasher.
I thought about it this morning when I was trying to transfer miles into upgrade credits on the American Airlines web site. It’s something I’ve done several times, but not frequently enough to remember the process. I have to reason my way into the process each time, and it’s something I am not comfortable with and not very good at. For my children, it is part of their way of doing things — approaching a task kind’a like a safe cracker, ready to work the problem rather than remember the combination.
Their video games are much the same. Rarely do they come with instructions. You have to go in, figure out what the goal is, learn the rules through interaction, and then figure out how to use the rules to accomplish the goals. It irritates me when I do not know the process up front. I am less than confident that I will succeed… accomplish the goal… get to the other side of the wall.
But from our students’ point of view — from the point of view of their future — is this ability to reason their way into a task a basic skill. Because, if they will be shaping much of their future, will there be more need for this skills. Are all children gaining these skills.
As a math teacher this is the problem I have with most math curriculum. We teach students to memorize process or formulas. Instead we should be teaching them how to figure out the problems by themselves.
I agree, Brendan. My son would always figure out a way to solve the math problem rather than using the method demonstrated by the math teacher. I liked his way better because he was being more inventive in his learning. However, the math teacher made a good point, in that she was teaching math developmentally, and that he wouldn’t understand the next concepts unless he was mastering the current ones. I don’t know if this is valid. From her perspective and the way she was teaching math, it did make sense. But is there another way to teach math?
I find your reflection on how our students today learn how make technology work for them fascinating. I remember being very good at playing Nintendo games from the very first console that came out in the mid-80’s. When I observe the games that my students play currently, I find them so complicated and I am completely incompetent when I try to play them. The controls have more buttons than I have fingers. Although I am about one generation older than most of my students I never thought that I would have found myself lost and lagging behind in technology. I find at times wanting to go back to the days when technology was easier to understand. To try to answer your question. I think that all children/students do have this ability of using trial and error to formulate a logical deduction of functions required to accomplish a particular task. I do not think it is a skill that today’s youth has recently developed but rather a skill we all have. The only difference would be our motivation for the task at hand. Your motivation to learn how to operate the digital watch is simply non-existent. Motivation, studies have shown, is a critical part of the learning process when we view it all the way down to the molecular level and how the brain shapes itself as it learns. If you were to ask the same students that are experts in the the use of a game console a question which they feel no motivating factor to solve, I guarantee that the results will be similar to that of you and the digital watch.
Loving your presentation here in Michigan! Thank you for your joy and enthusiasm for teaching! You are a wonderful storyteller:)
Susan
I think there are a few reasons we (those kids) do things like this, for me, I already have to remember so much stuff, alot of it will be obselete at some point too soon to think about, I don’t want to waste space remembering something when I can just figure it out. The other reason is because I am a pragmatic learner, which I don’t think is a kid thing, more just a … human… thing.
But yeah… don’t get me to figure out your VCR – I use other people to fix that stuff more me, family, boyfiend, whoever… it’s just another thing to remember, and VCRs are too old to reason with 😉
I love this analogy! I am also a math teacher and know exactly what you are talking about. I teach Geometry to 10th graders and by the time I get them they are already well trained to memorize process and I not only have to retrain them but try to wipe out 10 years of training all in one year! Geometry is a fantastic time to do this since there really is no process to geometry but instead there are concepts and understanding and then problem solving skills to use the concepts and understanding to solve problems. I wish geometry could be taught more throughout students’ mathematics career instead of one year in high school. I have been teaching for 11 years and recently I have noticed students are getting better at problem solving instead of process solving. Maybe those video games are finally paying off 🙂
I think that my generation and the generation below me don’t like to spend the time to read the instructions even if there are some because we would rather figure it out ourselves. This generation is a lot more independent and enjoy finding ways to do things rather then being told.
Why do you think that is. I’m suggesting that it is because you have grown up with devices you have to reason your way into. But is there another reason. I’m curious about the next commenter, who suggests that you have to much to remember already. Easier to process your way in than to remember the process.
I am a student at a University in Nebraska. I agree with the above comments. I think that schools have taught the students and put it into their head the idea of memorization. All you have to do is memorize this formula or these words and pass the test and move on! How are we teaching any of our students the real meaning of “problem solving”. I get to a math test that requires problem solving or just plan using my brain to work a problem out, rather than a memorized formula, and I tense up and forget everything I’ve learned. This goes outside of school as well with real life problems. Life is a lot tougher than made out to be in some instances and we have to teach young people that they have to use their brains, that is why they were given to them!
As someone who has taught students of all ages and also trains faculty, I’m familiar with this generational split. However, I frame it in terms of frustration and anxiety, i.e. how does the user react when presented with a problem they don’t know how to solve? Can they sit with the frustration, work through it, and manage to logic their way out, or do they give up? What’s their threshold before they quit?
This threshold doesn’t seem to me to be solely a generational thing (though there may be some correlation there), but rather a very individually determined behavior. Being able to tolerate that feeling of irritation at not knowing the process is the key, because all of us, even the technologists, experience it. I tell my users that I landed in a tech director position in part because my frustration threshold is significantly higher than most, and thus my confidence at being able to solve unfamiliar problems has grown over time. I guess the more I just pigheaded my way through situations the better I thought I was!
Thanks for the post! I can definitely relate to this; I’m a college student, and often the “go-to” gal when a family member needs help with something with a plug. I recently helped my grandmother set up an account on a social networking site, and she had to write every step down on a pad of paper (this made the process significantly longer – especially since hers is probably the last household in the Midwest that still uses dial-up…). However, when I did the same thing for my 13 year-old brother, he was immediately able to figure everything out, sometimes even before I told him what to do! It seems to me that today’s students are just born with better technological heuristics; no doubt because of the huge role it’s played in their entire lives, whereas for older generations (and even people my age, to some extent), were introduced to today’s technology later in life. Technology can be very frustrating for everyone – we’ve all experienced its failure at some point – but I think if today’s students have such a firm grasp on what’s going on, we’ll be in good hands further down the line. 🙂
Whenever I talk to someone about a solution that they want (me) to design, I pull out my iPod touch. My favorite part about the ipod is that it ships with no instruction manual. Intuitive design has become such a critical part of our culture, and this is part of what makes reasoned approaches to problems possible.
Makes me think of a book that came out a couple of years ago: Simplexity http://www.amazon.com/Simplexity-Simple-Things-Become-Complex/dp/B002YNS18E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278030188&sr=8-1 Well worth a read.