Blog topic #2
Children come wired to learn based on their environment.In Oppenheimer's 1st Chapter of The Flickering Mind, he discusses what he call the history of technotopia in education. With every new wave of technology and promises made to improve education, technology hucksters hype the utopia of what they can do for our children. Oppenheimer references one Orwellian disaster after another where each new wave fails to address literacy and improving education, with remnants of obsolescence lurking where an increasing percentage of our education expenditures have gone.
In the International Society for Technology in Education (NETS-S and Tech Tonic), the overarching caution is that something is amplified and something else is amputated.
I agree that we can easily be tempted by the ease of using technology in our own learning and in that of our students. However, with the invention of the digital clock, students don't learn analog time telling and important math skills. With a calculator, we don't have to do the work of computation. With google translate, why should I bother learning another language?
I think the best computer we have is our brain. If we except that synapses need to fire and neural connections need to be made, I think we can accept that technology is a tool. We can use it for our betterment, or as the lazy way to get out of work. And the brain benefits or atrophies.
With the invention of the television and the evolution of both parents working, children frequently succumb to the endless brain numbing programming. How many hours of tv do children watch? How many commercials, violence, and other things we don't want our children emulating? How will they learn if we don't teach them?
Weizenheimer, an MIT Computer Technology whiz some decades ago predicted the best use of technology would be for teachers' management of information.
The computer is not the teacher. And, as one of our classmates stated, students prefer a teacher over distance learning. The interaction itself is part of a meaningful education.
I think technology helps with administration, but it does have educational applications. Students are motivated by the use of technology, and And, like it or not, it is here to stay. If we can approach technology with a perspective of critical thinking and model that for our children, we are more likely to have a well balanced, educated next generation that will thrive in a compassionate 21st century.
More information to think about on this topic is in the following New York Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29franzen.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=OP-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-TPA-052911-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI liked your comment that the best computer to use is our brain. Students need to become involved in their learning through group interactions and hands-on activities. Technology should be used as a supplement materials for students to either reteach or enrich students' learning. As another classmate pointed out in their post a balance needs to exist in order for technology to work in the classroom setting.
I agree with your comment about the computer is not the teacher. I think that a lot of critics believe that computers are being misused, taking the place for instruction. I think that in order for computers to assist in the learning process, educators must be properly trained in utilzing the machines in a postive manner.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the computer is not the teacher, and with a proper understanding of what education is, cannot be a teacher, no matter how clever the coding is.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times article is good.
I think you mean Joseph Weizenbaum?
jd
You are very weize. Thanks! :)
ReplyDelete