Is education spreading or mitigating the evils of technology?

 

And so, these are my five ideas about technological change. First, that we always pay a price for technology; the greater the technology, the greater the price. Second, that there are always winners and losers, and that the winners always try to persuade the losers that they are really winners. Third, that there is embedded in every great technology an epistemological, political or social prejudice. Sometimes that bias is greatly to our advantage. Sometimes it is not. The printing press annihilated the oral tradition; telegraphy annihilated space; television has humiliated the word; the computer, perhaps, will degrade community life. And so on. Fourth, technological change is not additive; it is ecological, which means, it changes everything and is, therefore, too important to be left entirely in the hands of Bill Gates. And fifth, technology tends to become mythic; that is, perceived as part of the natural order of things, and therefore tends to control more of our lives than is good for us. Neil Postman

In the article Is the Internet Evil?, Chrisine Elba digs up Neil Postman's old but prescient talk "5 Things We Need to Know About Technological Change" from back in the dark ages of technology - 1998. Both Postman's original talk and Elba's interpretation of it for 2018 are both great thought-pieces when talking about how technology is used in schools and what we teach kids about it.

Even as an "advocate" for information technology use in schools, I recognize that technology also has its negative impacts. Among the many questions I often ask:

• Are we using too much data and not enough common sense in evaluating students and the effectiveness of our educational programs?
• Are we communicating with our students and our peers digitally instead of in personal, face-to-face conversations?
• Are we subjecting our students to "information" sources that are inaccurate and inappropriate before they have the skills to to evaluate and comprehend such materials?
• Are we dedicating educational dollars to technology that might be better spent on libraries, smaller class sizes, better teacher pay, better facilities?
• Are we increasing the inequity of learning opportunities between the haves and have-nots by using technological resources to which not all students have equal access?
• Are students (and staff) becoming more isolated and distracted by omnipresent social networks and smartphones? Is deep, linear reading and thinking being replaced by snippets and tweets and bumper-sticker thinking?

Even if you are the school's biggest proponent of technology, you are probably asking these questions. And if you are your school's biggest opponent to technology, you are probably realizing that technology is not going away.

In These horses are out of the barn, I suggested that we as educators need to accept some realities about technology. But not only do we need to accept them, we need to recognize our responsibilities as educators in helping students (and each other) use technology wisely and avoid the most negative impacts they have on us both personally and societally.

As my friend Carol Simpson always says, "You can't teach children to cross the street safely if you never let them out of the house." How do we teach kids how to use technology well and mitigate its negative impact if we don't give them access to it in our classrooms where we can guide and inform?

To me, this one of our most important professional duties.

7 reasons your school doesn't need a library

I know there will be some raised eyebrows seeing my name associated with the “nay” side of any question about the necessity of school libraries. But let’s be honest here. There are schools that don’t need library facilities, library programs, or librarians. These school’s teachers and administrators:

1. Are content to have their instruction be textbook and test-driven. Given the number of standards in the state-mandated curriculum and the state’s test-based accountability requirements, the staff does not see the need for in-depth study of topics, problem-based teaching, or authentic assessment. A single textbook meets teacher needs.

2. Are unconcerned about providing quality information sources to staff and students. Administrators feel that edited sources of information – books, commercial databases, or reference materials - are necessary when “everything is free on the Internet.” Questions of information reliability and authority are deemed irrelevant.

3. Believe students and staff can locate reliable information without assistance. Citing the ability of students to do a search in Google and find pages of information on which the search term appears, teachers dismiss the notion that more sophisticated strategies and search tools were needed. Kids can always change their topic if they don’t find what they need with Google in these schools.

4. Feel that the ability to process and communicate information in formats other than print is unnecessary. Students in these schools use standard written term papers as the sole means of communicating the results of research. That they are word-processed was cited as proof of “technology integration.” Having students communicate using audio, video, photographic or visual productions, is dismissed as irrelevant to preparing students for college.

5. Feel no need for F2F collaborative learning space. Classrooms and quiet study halls are the only places considered appropriate for learning in these schools.

6. View independent voluntary reading is a waste of time. Strict adherence to the basal readers and reading “skill building” software results in students scoring acceptably on standardized tests, so both administration and teachers are reluctant to “mess with success.” Developing a desire to read is not part of the district’s strategic plan.

7. Believe differentiated instruction is just babying the slackers. Providing materials at a variety of levels, in multiple formats meeting the needs of learners with divergent abilities, interests and learning styles is given a low priority by these schools.

Small classroom book collections that supplement the reading series and a word-processing lab with access to Google are all that such schools currently require. Since the skills of librarians are viewed as unimportant, the library can be staffed by clerks.

I would not send my own children to such a school, but it’s differences that make a horse race, I guess.

Published as a counter point in ISTE's Leading & Learning, Nov 2009

BFTP: Re-create please

Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.   ~ Maya Angelou (from the Quoteflections blog)

My then-fifteen-year-old daughter and I took a trip through the Far East back in 1988. One of the places we visited was a section of the Great Wall of China outside Beijing. We climbed the wall, hiked a bit of its length, posed sitting on a Bactrian camel, dickered with the touts selling souvenirs, and generally had a memorable time. 

But from the top of the Wall, I could look down and see that some of the tour buses still had people in them - people too old, too tired, too disinterested to get off the bus, to interact with this strange, wonderful place even at a tourist level. At the time, I wondered how many of these folks had delayed travel and leisure and adventure until "after retirement." I vowed at that moment to adopt Travis McGee's strategy of taking one's retirement in small increments throughout one's life.

I worry about people, especially educators, who never seem to take a day off. From blogging. From Tweeting. From e-mail. From showing up at work. From worrying about their jobs, their students, and their schools. I am somewhat appalled when 80% of my co-workers when asked about what kind of vacation they took this summer reply "none."

Recreation, should always be spelled "re-creation." Getting away gives one perspective. Gives one time to reflect. Gives one time to get to know one's significant other, one's children, and one's self better - for good or for bad. 

Re-creation doesn't necessarily mean travelling to a new place. It can be going to a well-loved resort, To a quiet park.  It can be a day at the pool. At home alone with a good book. On a walk or a bike ride or a run at lunchtime. Maybe it just means turning off the computer and the phone for a few blissful hours.

We all need to truly leave work now and then - for both our physical and mental health. When we are gone, we give those who remain practice making responsible choices, thus strengthening our organizations. A little distance between ourselves and our challenges brings them into focus. 

I've often wondered if professionals stopped putting in unpaid overtime, if unemployment would disappear. While we all pride ourselves on our work "ethic," I often ask if we are treating ourselves ethically? What happened to those promised 30 hour work weeks that automation was supposed to produce?

Perhaps this is all just rationalization since I take every available day permitted in my contract to re-create. Perhaps. But I do believe in the value to both oneself and those with whom one works to get away now and then.

Try it if you haven't. 

Original post July 9, 2013