My thoughts on the Cambridge Forum
What are the costs/benefits of digital technologies for writing (or, put more broadly, for information storage and mobilization)? What are the costs/benefits of digital technologies for teaching and learning? What can we learn from historical perspectives on communications technologies?
One of the most important benefits of digital technologies for writing is the removal of the “monologue” dominated by mass media. With instantaneous two way communication, a broader community is created in an attempt to preserve or spread the word without any censorship. The cost that comes with this is the large amount of noise. The ability to disseminate the two will become paramount. As a result, new mechanisms for regulating, monitoring, sorting, storing and retrieving data are created. So in the end, what started off as a cost has been converted into a benefit by the adaptability of the human race. This is by no means an easy task as it takes a great deal to ensure quality and review on the cyberspace. At any moment, the text that appears on the internet can be as easily lost as it was found because of a changed link. The ability to integrate old technology with new technology becomes increasingly important as technology is constantly being updated. This cost becomes a budgetary concern for larger institutions like a school board. For example, the BC education system uses a student information system called BCESIS which allows teachers, counselors and administrators keep track of students’ academic and behavioral performance. However, this software depends on an old version of Java Script which makes it impossible to run on updated machines. With a little technological ingenuity, an isolated and virtual environment can be created so that an older version of Java Script will run without affecting the functioning of the rest of the computer, but the time and training it takes to implement this solution for the entire school district would be time consuming and costly.
In terms of education, the benefit as this new form of democratization causes a shift in power, roles and responsibilities between teacher and student. With all benefit comes a cost which is the exclusion of individuals who choose not to integrate themselves into the technology. This widens the generational gap between teacher and student but like any new change, the convenience that comes with new technology becomes a temptation that sways luddites to venture into this new frontier. One unforeseen benefit that technology has had on the student population is the creation of a generation that is more accepting of new experiences and more skeptical of information. In the very end, the information age is transforming society into critical thinkers who are more apt to challenge and reform the status quo using the outsourced information.
One thing I learned from the historical perspective is that revolution rarely occurs and the effect of new technology is more complicated and unpredictable than what was anticipated. For every concern that was mentioned, humans have come up with a solution. This is largely because the human race is inherently adaptable in nature. Progress follows the physics concepts of conservation of momentum/energy: nothing was truly destroyed but merely transformed into a different form.
References
Cambridge Forum radio broadcast: From Papyrus to Cyberspace, 1999 with James O’Donnell and James Engalls
I really like your reference to the physics concept of momentum! It is so true. Every new thing that is invented always brings out many naysayers, but over time everyone adapts and we begin to see the benefits of the change. The introduction of our current technology has not destroyed everything that came before it, but changed it to a different form. Very well said!
Another point that really stood out to me in the broadcast was when the speaker told the little story about the little boy telling his father that there was not nearly as much history to know when the father was in school! Often I feel that we are not required to remember anything because of our easy access to whatever information we need on the internet. But, from another perspective, anytime a question comes up in my classroom that the students don’t know, we are able to look it up and get an answer. This would not have been as possible years ago as we’d have all had to trek off to a library to look up the information. Just the other day, one of my students asked if there were actually any astronauts currently in space. We were able to look it up and find that there were six in outer space, who they were and where they were from. They may not necessarily remember these names, but now they know where to look if they would like to know this again in the future. So, we may not be required to remember everything as we did, but we are able to know much more! We are now developing the skill of finding information rather than the ability to retrieve it from memory.
Jennifer
You had mentioned the changing roles and the shifting of power between teacher and student. This is my 5th course with MET and I’m starting to realize that my idea that my primary goal is not neccessarily to bring students to the same “plateau” by the end of the course. I’m starting to realize that in today’s information-rich society, that is simply not possible. And here in BC, as the provincial government pushes ahead with a new curriculum from K-12 pulling away the many detailed learning outcomes and only giving us “big ideas”, I feel I’m finally beginning to accept that its OK for students to be at a different place and my role may be more of a guide than a traditional teacher.
The generation gap that you mentioned is a big part of my pre-conceptual beliefs. I was in school through the eighties …. the post industrialization era where we had a test at the end of each unit to measure if our cookies were cut in the same shape and size as everyone else’s. This suited the pre-cyberspace culture at the time where the information we received was filtered through our teacher, the author, the librarian and publishers. But as you mentioned, in this day where anyone can be a publisher, students must learn that entirely new skill of sorting through this sea of information.
My question is … if this is such an important skill for our students to learn, the ability to decipher the relevance and quality of the information they are searching, where exactly do they receive instruction on how to do this?
I believe that students learn this skill by their constant interaction with the information. By being submerged in it, this is a skill that they would automatically acquire or they would end up being overwhelmed and confused. At some point, students need to read the information, process the information and make a judgment based on their prior knowledge/experience. Of course they will make mistakes and whether these students learn from their mistakes is what distinguishes a good learner from a bad one. The only place where the students may receive some formal instruction on deciphering this information would be from the librarian who would give some pointers and teachers who would give feedback on projects, but it would be up to each individual students to master this skill so that relevant and high quality sources of information are provided for assignments.
Stephanie, you have raised several interesting points, but I will address one in particular:
“In terms of education, the benefit as this new form of democratization causes a shift in power, roles and responsibilities between teacher and student. With all benefit comes a cost which is the exclusion of individuals who choose not to integrate themselves into the technology.”
I totally agree with you, however, I would say that this “new form of democratization”, as you correctly frame it, is, like democracy itself, way more complex than just a binary of integration or non-integration. Maybe we can talk about “degrees of integration”?
Anyways, following up with your comment, this just happened 5 days ago:
“Pens and paper have no place in the modern classroom. And chalkboards? They should be banished from our schools too.”
That’s what Lia De Cicco Remu, director of Partners in Learning at Microsoft Canada, told the Georgia Straight ahead of theMicrosoft Summit 2015 in Vancouver, which is set to be attended by around 200 teachers.
“When was the last time you used a piece of chalk to express yourself?” De Cicco Remu, a former teacher, asked by phone from Toronto. “Kids don’t express themselves with chalk or in cursive. Kids text.”
What are your thoughts on this?
http://www.straight.com/life/452561/teachers-using-pens-and-paper-classroom-not-fair-students-microsoft-official-says
I find that this is a very extreme view on technology in the school system. Like any technology, there are unique affordances offered by each. For example, pen and paper allows you to keep a record of all your edits which is more difficult to come by for text. In addition, the graphical freedom offered by pen and paper gives you the ability to write freely without the formatting restrictions of text. You can write anywhere with any font size and type. Studies have shown that the very act of writing makes it easier for children to recognize letters and students to remember concepts. Although tablets are emulating this graphical freedom using touch interface, they don’t have solution for dealing with the strenuous lighting from the screen which can lead to headaches or dry eyes.
Texting and typing have their place in the school system as a means of communicating with each other and for formal writing for purposes that require generic formatting. But I do not agree that they can replace pen and paper altogether. Why limit the tools you have available to you especially when they are so inexpensive? Like you mentioned, there are various degrees of integration rather than the two extremes.
Well said Candelaria;
I don’t think I was the only creative child in my K-12 classes and I would draw images on my pages that related to the subject being addressed by the teacher. Some kids doodle to keep their hands busy so they can stay still in their seats. In science classes I would draw diagrams and for other classmates as well. I’m not a Leonardo but there is a particular kind of learning process going on when drawing ideas (whether with pencil, pastels charcoal) rather than putting them only into appropriate words.
Terry
What a way to drum up interest in a conference put on my your tech company!:) I would say don’t throw out the chalk or pencils and paper. Chalkboards, sure, as they are a health hazard for children with breathing problems. But chalk in the playground can be a wonderful tool for supporting creativity. Do they still play hopscotch or draw rainbows on the pavement?
Did anyone else notice the yellow pencils in two of the three images supplied by Microsoft?
Terry
PS I like your term “degrees of integration’. Most times we have to work through any change full circle to learn the intricacies and resulting outcomes.