Ever heard of Neil Postman? If not, your cultural education is not complete. For that matter, reading Postman might not complete it but you’ll be closer. One of his most powerful books was entitled, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Most of the essays found within deal with the detrimental impact of television but the same arguments could be applied to computers and the modern craze for all things technological.
It is easy to write off such musings and subjects as the product of a master’s study reading list and true, I first came across Postman while in graduate school. However, reading his thoughts on the impact of technology on our society has forced me to reconsider everything I do in the classroom and in my daily life. Much of the “progress” in the educational field is equated with the level of technology in the classroom. However, I’m not sure what I’m doing with my students (or more to the point, “to my students”) by allowing them access to computers and other media within the arena of knowledge is helping or furthering my goals for the students.
If I tell a kid to research something, the computer trains them to type in a generic question, press enter, click on a link, read a quick sentence with the keyword within and voila – the student has been educated. That is – educated by modern definitions. I would say the kid knows only the surface information and today’s culture suggest that is all that is necessary. Today, I heard a mathematician on NPR talk about the lack of need for students to have a strong command of handwritten mathematical abilities because computers and its programs are capable of doing the same. What kind of position is that for an educator to take? Hell, not even an educator – what kind of position is that for a learned individual to take? A most recent study by Columbia University suggested that students who rely on the internet to gather information remember less because, in their minds, they can always go back to the internet and refresh. There is no reason to learn.
I’ve had the experience – as I’m sure you have as well – of a teller with a “down” computer and unable to calculate correct change. I have to do that for them. If a student in my class learns that the ramifications of the Spanish-American War for the U.S. was, in part, that it acquired Puerto Rico and Guam as territories, what does the student really know? They know the equivalent of the mathematical skills to input numbers into a computer program. What do they really know about the meaning of having Puerto Rico or Guam as a territory? What do they know about the implications for the inhabitants of those islands in the wake of America’s governance? What do they know about how possession of these islands changed U.S. foreign policy? My suggestion is, not much.
What creates this short-cut minded approach to knowledge? It is the medium by which we seek knowledge. The book, today, remains the single most important and effective way to gather and gain information and knowledge. However, our generation has not the patience for such time-consuming activities. The students scream for a website that breaks it down for them or the abbreviated notes on the same. Meanwhile, I’m screaming for a child with the intellectual stamina to endure a book. The numbers capable of taking up that banner are dwindling at an alarming rate.
It is easy to write off such musings and subjects as the product of a master’s study reading list and true, I first came across Postman while in graduate school. However, reading his thoughts on the impact of technology on our society has forced me to reconsider everything I do in the classroom and in my daily life. Much of the “progress” in the educational field is equated with the level of technology in the classroom. However, I’m not sure what I’m doing with my students (or more to the point, “to my students”) by allowing them access to computers and other media within the arena of knowledge is helping or furthering my goals for the students.
If I tell a kid to research something, the computer trains them to type in a generic question, press enter, click on a link, read a quick sentence with the keyword within and voila – the student has been educated. That is – educated by modern definitions. I would say the kid knows only the surface information and today’s culture suggest that is all that is necessary. Today, I heard a mathematician on NPR talk about the lack of need for students to have a strong command of handwritten mathematical abilities because computers and its programs are capable of doing the same. What kind of position is that for an educator to take? Hell, not even an educator – what kind of position is that for a learned individual to take? A most recent study by Columbia University suggested that students who rely on the internet to gather information remember less because, in their minds, they can always go back to the internet and refresh. There is no reason to learn.
I’ve had the experience – as I’m sure you have as well – of a teller with a “down” computer and unable to calculate correct change. I have to do that for them. If a student in my class learns that the ramifications of the Spanish-American War for the U.S. was, in part, that it acquired Puerto Rico and Guam as territories, what does the student really know? They know the equivalent of the mathematical skills to input numbers into a computer program. What do they really know about the meaning of having Puerto Rico or Guam as a territory? What do they know about the implications for the inhabitants of those islands in the wake of America’s governance? What do they know about how possession of these islands changed U.S. foreign policy? My suggestion is, not much.
What creates this short-cut minded approach to knowledge? It is the medium by which we seek knowledge. The book, today, remains the single most important and effective way to gather and gain information and knowledge. However, our generation has not the patience for such time-consuming activities. The students scream for a website that breaks it down for them or the abbreviated notes on the same. Meanwhile, I’m screaming for a child with the intellectual stamina to endure a book. The numbers capable of taking up that banner are dwindling at an alarming rate.
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