Papyrus and Cyberspace
I found the issues raised in the radio broadcast “From Papyrus to Cyberspace” (1999, Cambridge Forum) surprisingly relevant to today’s issues surrounding digital technologies for writing. O’Donnell and Engell remind us that there are always losses and gains related to all technologies, and that this “new” frontier is not in fact new, and that we have been here before, (think the evolution from stone tablets to papyrus, parchment to paper and ink, and now cyberspace). Similarly, Willinksy (2002) also raises similar issues in his paper. O’Donnell, Engell and Willinsky all seem to agree that technology is moving at a very rapid pace, and all agree that information found online is not always reliable. In the radio broadcast, one audience member raises this issue, and I believe it is an important one, of whether or not our ability to deal with knowledge is going down hill due to the vast amount of it readily available and accessible. The response was that today’s students are more educated and informed than previous years and while I do agree with the statement, I also believe that students need more explicit instructions on how to evaluate information they find online. As Engell points out, the quick advancement of technologies has forced a change in the role of student and teacher, as students are often more knowledgeable about these technologies than their teachers; however, the role of the teacher to instruct students on skills such as critical thinking and evaluating, assessing, and filtering this unlimited knowledge is a crucial one. As Willinsky (2002) states, with the amount of information available on the Internet, “patients and their families now bring Web-based medical information to their doctors’ offices, although they may not understand it well, nor is the information always reliable” (p. 1). Without teachers guiding students and encouraging them to really think about the information that is being presented online, the results could end up being that students are in fact less educated and informed than those students from previous years.
One point from the radio broadcast that I found very interesting was the idea that books are getting shorter as the attention span of students is shortening, and whether or not this was a bad thing. Recently a colleague of mine attended a workshop given by George Couros, who is an innovative teaching, learning and leadership consultant. My colleague was appalled when George mentioned that he had never finished reading an entire novel because he didn’t like reading, and found that he only needed to read the beginning and ending of a novel to write essays which satisfied the criteria for teachers and professors. If students are no longer required to read entire novels, or write essays for that matter, I feel like a huge part of our culture will be lost or will change, and I am not entirely sure if that will be a change or the better. On the other hand, I am not sure how necessary it is for today’s students to know how to write a proper essay or read an entire novel when summaries and options such as Cole’s notes are all available online. For being more than a decade old, it interesting that the issues raised by O’Donnell, Engell and Willinsky are still relevant in todays fast past technological world.
References
Engell J. & O’Donnell J. (1999). From Papyrus to Cyberspace. [Audio File]. Cambridge Forums.
Willinsky, J. (2002). Democracy and education: The missing link may be ours. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3), 367-392.
Image “Stipula fountain pen” by Antonio Litterio is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
From my point of view due to the extreme increase in information availability and due to use being exposed to it all the time “online” we need to have short attention spans to shift from one domain to the other easily and absorb information faster.
Kara, I am glad you picked up an important point about teaching our students to evaluate information which they are receiving. From my experience students immediately sought out Google when beginning any research project. Further I have also observed that students gather most of the information from the internet rather than using scholarly books or articles etc. This has become a practice until they reach university. Technology and internet provide countless opportunities for collaboration, instant access to information and communication but as an educator it is our duty to teach our students digital citizenship and awareness on how to gather information wisely. This is very critical and our students need a lot of coaching and training on it.
Hi Kara,
I really like this comment that you made:
“Without teachers guiding students and encouraging them to really think about the information that is being presented online, the results could end up being that students are in fact less educated and informed than those students from previous years.”
I don’t think we need to fear that teachers will become unnecessary. Due to the developmental nature of children and their learning, I think they will always need someone to guide them in some way. While we no longer need to be deliverers of the information that needs to be learned, teaching students HOW to learn is still extremely important. I don’t think there are too many children who would want to sit and learn everything they need to know online with no one motivating them, directing their attention or helping them recognize the important information. So our role is changing along with the technology. We, as teachers, need to learn to adapt to these changes too!
Jennifer
Hi guys,
I totally agree on the responsibility of educators towards critical thinking, the problem is that we often lack of the necessary tools. I am of course generalizing (and I shouldn’t) but I often see examples of educators making the same mistakes that students do. Unfortunately, a checklist is not always good enough. In many cases, is not a matter of lack of critical thinking, but of really sophisticated discourses aimed to deception. The good news is that the internet is reacting to this too, there are emerging genres like “myth debunking” webpages like http://www.snopes.com/.
Take a look at the case of the Megalodon documentary: http://www.latintimes.com/shark-week-2013-fans-grow-angry-over-megalodon-hoax-take-twitter-demand-apologies-tweet-reactions
Thoughts?
Hi Kara,
I liked your point about that “students need more explicit instructions on how to evaluate information they find online”. With today’s technology it’s possible for anyone to publish information online. There is an enormous amount of information online, some created by the everyday person, and some by experts. For the average person, unless you have an understanding about the topic, it will be hard to distinguish. In a way, the problem existed in print as well. For example, the information in a pop magazine may not be as solid as one published in a peer reviewed journal. And this could even be true of verbal communications.
You mentioned the difference in the attention span of students is changing. I find it interesting that people used to correspond in letters, and then emails, and now most people I now, it’s quick texts, using emoticons. I don’t know if that is a reflection of our information rich and faster pace lifestyles of if is actually a difference in the way people think these days.