After reviewing both articles, I can say without a doubt that I most akin to Postman. I see both the positive and the negative of technology. For it seems that for every step forward, we end-up coming almost full circle. One example is of CD's and DVD's- both of which can be scratched; so why didn't we keep the record player?
Don't get me wrong, I do like the fact that you can get lots of information from the Internet in a short time. But, because of the abundance of information, there are times when I can't find the simplest things without getting extra information that has nothing to do with what I am looking for.
I agree with Reigeluth and Joseph that "methods that show considerable promise for the new paradigm include problem-based learning, project-based learning, simulations, customized tutorials, peer-assisted learning, and self-regulated learning." However, what happens when technology malfunctions?
Recently, there was an outage and all of the Blackberry's went "black". I joked to my friends about how many of them were standing on the edge of a ledge because they didn't know where they were supposed to be or couldn't call someone. (I also have a good, old-fashioned, day planner). I couldn't imagine a teacher that relies on technology so much that if their computers weren't working, they wouldn't be able to "teach" and therefore, students wouldn't be able to learn.
They are pushing us to go to paperless office at work; and when the computers are down, there is almost nothing we can do. We are virtually paralyzed.
Technology seems to be more about keeping up with the Joneses and seeing who can get the next version of a program first. With every upgrade, something usually goes wrong with some function that worked on the previous version; from my personal experiences.
We should know how to both use technology and "teach" without it and our students should know how to use it and how to operate without it.
I think that Postman was absolutely correct when he said "the great problems of education are of a social and moral nature and have nothing to do with dazzling new technologies." Computers can't teach you what is moral nor social information that only come from interaction with other humans.
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5 comments:
"there are times when I can't find the simplest things without getting extra information that has nothing to do with what I am looking for."
This is very true. With greater access to useful knowledge also comes a bunch of worthless knowledge. I don't however think that this is going to change anytime soon. I think the job of educators is going to become less of teaching students fact and more teaching them how to learn and discern what is fact and what is fiction and what is useful and what is not.
Wikipedia gets a lot of heat because anyone can add to it. I do agree that no one should write a research paper with most if any of the citations from wikipedia, but it is a great place to start. There is a really good chance wikipedia will have something about what you are looking for and can give you more starting places when you actually go to look for real tests and studied facts from scholarly sources.
When technology fails it can indeed cripple us and give us "nothing to do", but times like that can also be used to work on those much overlooked interpersonal and social skills.
Sheena,
You and I have a lot of similar reactions and views to Postman’s article. If you read my posting you will see that I also believe that greater levels of technology is not a replacement for teaching moral and social consciousness.
The statement you made about being pushed to go paperless reminds me of a situation I just confronted this semester.
Every now and then I will teach a blueprint reading class and for several years I was using old fashioned overheads with real good success. This semester I was encouraged to use technology and go paperless. So I scanned in all my pages, created PDF files and put it all on a thumb drive. All went fine for a couple of weeks until the technology failed one day (computer system went down) and I was unable to teach. To overcome this problem I ran back to my office and grabbed my good old overheads and carried on. As you said, “We should know how to both use technology and "teach" without it and our students should know how to use it and how to operate without it”.
Thank you,
Jeff Tyler
Yeah, if you cannot teach then no matter how good with technology you are you are not going to do well as a teacher.
I agree that we shouldn't become totally dependent upon using technology, but there are many forms of technology available in your classroom. When one goes arye come back to it or utilize something else. Students should be proficient in using something such as a search engines as well as knowing that an encylapedia exsists and how to use it. I guess we always need a back up plan.
I do see your points and I fully understand with the pushing technology on us. And yes normally where there is an upgrade there is also a problem. We normally wait until the bugs are out of the systems we are upgrading to but there are times when we have to go ahead and normally there is a function that is lost but eventually it ends up working better than the previous.
Teachers do need to know how to teach without technology but technology should still play an important part in their education.
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