Thoughts on Ch.2

Synopsis

Chapter two begins by describing the 21st century student and comparing the modern student with the "traditional" student. Initially, the chapter delineates how increased access to technology have shaped the recreational and personal habits of the modern student. The author notes that the modern students are spending an substantial amount of their personal time on the Internet in almost facet of their lives. Socially, students maintain their own personal social networking web pages and participate in the social networking sites of others. Academically, students are spending greater amounts of their time researching information for school, and perhaps of greater importance, researching information relevant to their personal interests and curiosities. Furthermore, modern students are using web tools to communicate and collaborate on homework and school projects.

This paradigm shift in students lives has led to divergence between what students want from their schools and what they're actually getting from their schools, which are predominately still rooted in a outmoded, traditional model. Modern students are characterized as innately proficient users of technology, stemming from a changing cultural environment where kids exposed to increasingly more technology at increasingly earlier ages.) The directly contrasts with a traditional school model that emphasis text-based learning and rote memorization. Among the myriad student complaints the author enumerates, the most important remarks center on the lack of access to technology in schools and lack of technological integration in the curriculum. Also, modern students are characterized as the "customization generation"; students value the ability to customize the technology they use - the logical consequence being that they would like to utilize technology to "customize" their learning by modifying instruction to meet their unique learning preferences and interests.

Another critical issue schools now face is that schools are having trouble providing adequate access to the tools that students need. If students are expected to work through the web, schools must necessarily increased the supply of computers, software, hardware, etc. More importantly, however, schools rooted in the traditional mold must extricate themselves from tradition and adapt themselves to new models of instruction and new conceptions of learning. To this end, the chapter notes a revised learning taxonomy based on the Bloom model, a quick glimpse at constructivism and project-based learning, and George Siemens' theory of collectivism. In conclusion, the author notes the merit of each of these learning theories/approaches, and notes that the educational goals of most schools are seemingly opposite
of these approaches.

Reflection

I found much of what I read in this chapter insightful and of practical value as an educator. Initially, I appreciate that the author attempts to characterize the environment, interests, abilities, and habits-of-mind of the modern student. Certainly, educators should be aware of how students think and operate with regard to the technology they use and how it affects their behavior as learners. Why? Because this knowledge will help us cast a wider net in communicating with our students. By understanding how our students communicate, research, and collaborate in their own lives via web based tools, we can utilize those same techniques/tools in our instruction.

Still, I found myself at odds with many of the unquestioned premises on which the author bases his advocacy of technology in education. Thus far, much of this book rests upon an implicit assumption that the world has changed and those who aren't adapting to this change are fundamentally in error. Consider the last sentence of the first paragraph when the author states, "These technologies have always been available to them [21st century youth, a.k.a our students]. Their parents and teachers and the rest of us who weren't born into a technologically interactive world have to struggle to keep up." This, in my opinion, supersedes important questions. Why? Who is serving whom here? Put differently, this statement assumes that we, the anachronists of the technological age, must feel compelled to change our ways and unquestioningly adapt to the technological era, or else face obsolescence. Still what is our end goal? If we accept that we must adapt ourselves, our habits of mind, and the way we communicate with one another, shouldn't we at least be clear about the purpose behind the change. If technology is intended to enhance our lives and serve humanity, is it fulfilling that purpose? If it is, then we do indeed need, "to struggle to keep up." However, if we are in a mad pace to adapt ourselves to the demands of the technological age without reflecting on the necessity of those demands, then we're living without reflection, resigning ourselves to being controlled rather than assuming control over our existence. My intention, at this point in time, is not to answer the question - only to posit that the question exists and deserves to be explored. Technology like Web 2.o tools are undoubtedly shaping the way we life our lives, conduct our business, and communicate with one another. However, we must not refuse to question the role technology plays in our lives or resign ourselves as powerless to shape it.

Viewing Technology with a Skeptic's Intentions

"The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one's status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it." - Neil Postman from speech given the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik)

As educators, we have a responsibility to empower our students with the tools needed to survive and thrive in our modern environment. Undeniably, the political, social, and economic environment of the 21st century is rooted in technology, or more specifically, the Internet. As such, teachers in the modern era feel overwhelming pressure to respond the demands of the digital age by utilizing every technological tool we can lay our hands on. Indeed, the ISTE standards compel us to equip our students with the technological literacy they will need to compete for employment in the digital age.

However, in our race to keep pace with technology, like Web 2.0 tools, I feel we must keep a critical eye on our endeavors. The communicative power of new tools like blogs are unquestionably reshaping the social landscape our students in which our future generations will grow-up , play , and work, but we seldom stop to seriously reflect on the nature of that change, to cast a philosophical light on the manner in which humans are shaped by technology.

How, for example, has the Internet shaped the way we think and our most fundamental patterns of learning? In a recent article in the Atlantic titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid", author Nicholas Carr muses:

"Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle. "

What Nicholas Carr speaks of here is a change in our habits of mind, a change brought about by a new mode of thinking fostered by the quick access and abundant nature of information on the Internet. With the Internet, in order to attend to the information we need, we must sift through volumes of information. As such, we seldom attend to any single source of informational text very long or with great depth. The Internet compels us to value breadth of knowledge over depth of knowledge. Simultaneously, it asks us to shift our attention rapidly rather than focus it deliberately.

What are the ramifications of this mind-set? Of course, I can speculate, but before educators rush headlong into advocating for the virtues of technology and supplying our students with the technological skills necessary to realize those virtues, perhaps we should engage in a discussion about the role technology plays in shaping human thought and behavior. To be clear, I do not shun technology. Besides the obvious irony of arguing against technology via blogging, I feel that it would be grossly negligent to leave our students unequipped to attend to the practical realities of the modern world by denying them technological skills, simply because I have personal reservations regarding technology. I simply submit that we should become more reflective consumers of technology.