The Technology Agnostic or When Stories Aren’t Enough

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. - Eric Hoffer

Whether it is because of a) how God made me, b) how nature engineered me, or c) how Mom potty-trained me, I am more skeptic than believer. This skepticism extends to religion, politics and, especially, to technology use in school. But of course, if you’ve read anything on the Blue Skunk, you’ve guessed this.

Both believer and skeptic are alike in one important way: both think the other is a complete fool. I am always surprised when I post a blog entry or write a column that raises perfectly rational questions about some sacred cow, and then get a slew of emotional responses. (The LWW says I write such things because I like pushing people’s buttons. Maybe.)

Or if you will...

 

Age moves us from left to right on the believer-skepric scale. Yes, even I was once a young, dewy-eyed, newly-hired technology director with mountains to climb, buildings to be networked, a screw driver in hand, and trust in my heart. What happened? What vendor’s broken promise; what project that went over budget; what equipment failure during a critical demonstration; what useless research finding finally broke my sweet, idealistic spirit? Job may well have been able to maintain his faith in Jehovah; I could not maintain my faith in Jobs.

Now I’d never dream of trying to convince a jihadist not to have faith in his virgins, nor separate a political pundit from his bleak cynicism. Such attempts would be fruitless if not immoral. But I will try to persuade as many readers as possible that  as conscientious educators we better serve our students by being skeptics than evangelists.

Yes, share what works. If a technology use engages and motivates students; if it helps make them better communicators or problem-solvers; if it even, heaven forbid, helps them do better on tests, we should document and share these experiences.

“Documentation,” however, needs to be more than a simple story. Stories indeed can be powerful, but stories alone will not persuade us skeptics. And when it comes to things educational, there are more of us born every day – especially among parents and politicians. We need numbers, evidence, bottom-line stuff, and, as my statistician friend likes to remind me, ‘The plural of anecdote is not data.” Sure, tell that cute story about how Janie got all bright-eyed about PowerPoint, but the skeptic will smile and worry about all the other kids in Janie’s class. Cynics know that anomalies make great stories too.  Stories need to be the face of data, the personalization of evidence, the memorable example of a supportable conclusions.

It behooves us all to be technology agnostics, I suppose – neither completely convinced of educational technology’s value nor lack thereof. And in all fairness, we should be library agnostics as well. Although it pains me to say so.

I'm  glad that there are passionate people in education –folks that are excited about not just what they do, but about possibilities as well. People who care enough to have feelings about an issue. Teachers with hope and vision and faith. Believers, if you will. You are, of course, complete fools. But please, stay that way.

Comments

[Miguel Guhlin]

Wrote a little something...
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog/archives/2006/05/entry_1436.htm

Take care,
Miguel Guhlin
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

[Doug Johnson]

(In response to the long post on Miquel's site)

Hi Miguel,

Wow. I had no idea anyone would actually take my small posting so seriously! It was meant to be more humorous than anything. (I've been feeling I'd lost my sense of humor lately.)

I think you ask a really great question that I privately, never publicly, ask: "Where does faith come from? (And if faith is a gift from God, what does he intend for those whom she has not given religious faith? Are we to simply serve as a bad example?)"

But yes, I find it difficult to comprehend how one can be both a believer and a skeptic on the same topic. In different areas, for sure.

I would also think that various religions and their actions run the scale from authoritarian to democratic, even lassie faire if you count Universalist-Unitarians.

Anyway, I hope the original posting didn't offend - it wasn't meant to.

I think I will move on to other topics in the Blue Skunk for a bit!

All the best,

Doug

[Sara Kelly Johns]

It IS hard to see that tongue-in-cheek in print, easier in person. Anything written can be analyzed way beyond the intent of the author and I'll bet Miguel's lunch conversation was really interesting! Once you take off with a topic, it's hard to limit it just to what the article says.

And, Anne is right. As usual.

Sara