Week 2 Blog Assignment

Social Media Counter

With the Social Media Counter, I was quite taken aback by just how quickly these things are growing. I knew it was rapid, but one has to wonder how long it will take for the information to become so overwhelming that we can no longer weed out the useful stuff. For example, of the 20+ hours of video updated to YouTube daily, I would imagine that the useful, educational materials are grossly outnumbered by the videos of guys face-planting on their bikes. Of the nearly 1 million new blog posts every day, how many have useful information compared to those that consist of a thirteen year old girl writing about how what’s-his-name broke up with her?

It’s not that I don’t realize the amazing accomplishment we have, I just believe it’s (mostly) being wasted on petty things. While I am interested in learning about using things like YouTube and blogging for educational purposes, I submit the idea that it could easily become counter-productive. See, when I was growing up, I was never allowed to watch television or have any other distractions while I was doing homework. If we are posting assignments for middle schoolers on YouTube, we are inviting them into a hotbed of distracting things. This leads one to identify with Socrates when he spoke of writings. He said the new technology would cause people to “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” He went on to say that if people “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” He even takes it a step further to say that they would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” As I see people become more and more reliant on the internet for information and media, I get very fearful for the future of the human race. This Social Media Counter shows the transition for the written word, which Socrates feared, to a society where the written word isn’t quite good enough anymore. We must have pictures and videos and graphics just to keep a reader’s attention, but I digress.

The Socrates quotes were found in an article written by Nicholas Carr. Mr. Carr’s article can be found here.

A Vision of Students Today

I rather feel that Mr. Carr’s point is made rather clearly in the video “A Vision of Students Today.” In short, students today are lazy. The fact that the girl at 1:59 will read 1281 Facebook Profiles this year doesn’t tell me that teachers need to post info on Facebook, it tells me that she needs to stop spending so much time on Facebook and actually do her homework. A college student should be reading more than eight books a year, anyway.

At 1:50 and 1:53, we see a couple of students who aren’t really being studious at all. We meet a young man who never opens his $100 textbook and a woman whose neighbor never shows up to class. Please tell me how the education system can change to baby the guy who refuses to read his texts, or how we can appease the student who never comes to class. I know! Class in bed! What a great solution! A method of teaching which requires no effort at all by the students. Of course, this appears to be the point being made by the makers of this video. The idea that some people suggest that “technology alone can save us” tells me that we are on a downward spiral to devolution. We are dumbing ourselves down with technology every day.

It's Not About the Technology

I believe that Kelly Hines hit the nail on the head when she says that technology may not be the answer. While NetBooks and so on can be useful tools, the FIRST thing that needs to change is the mindset of the teacher. Unfortunately, in local school systems, technology seems to be replacing teachers. In my Alma Mater, the administration just built on a new wing with state of the art band equipment, a fantastic new A/V room with video and sound editing equipment, a brand new black box theater with shiny new everything. They spent millions of dollars on the buildings and equipment, and now they have cut the choir program. They have had to fire a great drama teacher, only to replace her with a woman who isn’t trained to teach drama, but she was tenure, so they make do. They had to fire the assistant band director, leaving one teacher in charge of 70+ students. They are looking to cut the middle school band program which will inevitably kill a band program which has won awards since before I was born.

All of these changes are taking place because they spent far too much money on all mighty technology, and, as a result, they don’t have enough money to pay teachers. This illustrates Kelly Hines point that, while technology is neat, the teacher is the most necessary asset to a classroom.

Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Now, I believe Mr. Fisch also has the right idea. He takes the time to say that technology isn’t the “Be all end all” of the education world, but he does put great emphasis on the importance of a teacher’s literacy. In fact, I think he is (mostly) right when he says that a teacher who is completely illiterate with computers is the equivalent to teachers who didn’t know how to read 30 years ago. I believe the analogy may be a bit extreme, something he admits, but it is, for the most part, accurate.

My only reasoning for not agreeing entirely is the fact that I feel some classes can still be taught as effectively as ever without the use of flashy technology. I don’t think it is absolutely essential to have a computer in the classroom when studying classic literature. A dictionary allowed millions of students to understand Hawthorne and Shakespeare before computer were around, and we can still do it today if teachers and students are willing to put forth the effort.

I, again, conclude my post by apologizing for my rampant skepticism of technology in education. I do see how it can be an effective tool, but billing it as being absolutely necessary in every class seems a bit much, but, as I stated before, I went to a high school where technologies were pursued overzealously, and teachers were fired due to budget problems.

Until next week, I would like to humbly thank you for reading.