Bevo Incognito
5,000+ Posts
If this is true, what are the ultimate implications?
Is Technology Messing with Our ability to learn?
- Thread starter Bevo Incognito
- Start date
Larry T. Spider
1,000+ Posts
I have not been teaching long enough to compare my current students to students without massive amounts of technology. I will say that the students seem to grasp memorization concepts better with the use of technology. I don't know if it is because their brains have experience with using technology of the interactive nature of the programs. Attention span without the constant input that technology provides is difficult. Critical thinking/problem solving other than trial and error is also a problem. A lot of programs just let you try until you get it right. I would expect this to be a major topic of conversation in education in the coming years.
C
Coelacanth
Guest
It's deeper than that.
My observation is that technology allows students to acquire information more quickly. And that's a good thing. What happens to the information and the students after that is more a function of our cultural momentum than it is a function of technology. The teachers in the survey blame technology—as would many others I'm sure—but the reality is that our society has abandoned the notion that non-factual problems can be sorted out by the use of reason.
The ambiguous world of values—as opposed to facts—is far more obscure to us today than it was to people even fifty years ago, let alone two hundred years ago. I think it's probably true that we're entering a new sort of dark age, one where discussion of "values" is considered pointless by most people, including students. Values, and opinions about them, are relegated to the category of personal preference, and the question of whether it is just for a society to force women to wear burkas is no more substantial than the question of whether we ought to prefer chocolate or vanilla cake. It cannot be answered on a scientific or a factual basis, and therefore any authentic consideration of the question is banished from the modern mind, to whatever degree our minds are in fact modern. Questions such as the one about burkas, which concern the proper priority of values in civil society, are pre-modern questions. To consider such questions seriously is to step into a time machine and become aliens in a world of ambiguity whose language we have long since forgotten.
The problem with this sort of alienation from the ambiguous world of values is that prioritizing values remains a functional necessity of life. We still have to do it, no matter how inept we are at it. In a sense, even by refusing to acknowledge the importance of prioritizing values, we have asserted a claim about the correct priority of values. To say it differently, the assumption that questions about value cannot be resolved does not exempt us from having to live in societies where values are in fact prioritized. The cost of neglecting the question of the correct priority of values is having to live in a society where values are prioritized incorrectly.
Technology does not prevent students from dealing with challenges. Rather it's the case that we've managed to convince students that questions of value—or questions we cannot answer on a factual basis—cannot be resolved, and therefore they are pointless to even consider.
My observation is that technology allows students to acquire information more quickly. And that's a good thing. What happens to the information and the students after that is more a function of our cultural momentum than it is a function of technology. The teachers in the survey blame technology—as would many others I'm sure—but the reality is that our society has abandoned the notion that non-factual problems can be sorted out by the use of reason.
The ambiguous world of values—as opposed to facts—is far more obscure to us today than it was to people even fifty years ago, let alone two hundred years ago. I think it's probably true that we're entering a new sort of dark age, one where discussion of "values" is considered pointless by most people, including students. Values, and opinions about them, are relegated to the category of personal preference, and the question of whether it is just for a society to force women to wear burkas is no more substantial than the question of whether we ought to prefer chocolate or vanilla cake. It cannot be answered on a scientific or a factual basis, and therefore any authentic consideration of the question is banished from the modern mind, to whatever degree our minds are in fact modern. Questions such as the one about burkas, which concern the proper priority of values in civil society, are pre-modern questions. To consider such questions seriously is to step into a time machine and become aliens in a world of ambiguity whose language we have long since forgotten.
The problem with this sort of alienation from the ambiguous world of values is that prioritizing values remains a functional necessity of life. We still have to do it, no matter how inept we are at it. In a sense, even by refusing to acknowledge the importance of prioritizing values, we have asserted a claim about the correct priority of values. To say it differently, the assumption that questions about value cannot be resolved does not exempt us from having to live in societies where values are in fact prioritized. The cost of neglecting the question of the correct priority of values is having to live in a society where values are prioritized incorrectly.
Technology does not prevent students from dealing with challenges. Rather it's the case that we've managed to convince students that questions of value—or questions we cannot answer on a factual basis—cannot be resolved, and therefore they are pointless to even consider.
NEWDOC2002
1,000+ Posts
C
Coelacanth
Guest
One other point:
I would say that standardized testing, and the "standards" movement more generally, is more central to the problem than technology.
I would say that standardized testing, and the "standards" movement more generally, is more central to the problem than technology.
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