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Champions of Technology Should Embrace the Skeptics

vonzastrowc's picture
By Claus von Zastrow on July 14, 2010

If ed tech enthusiasts want to advance their cause, then they should embrace the curmudgeons. In the end, technology skeptics offer some of the best reasons for bringing schools into the digital age.

And the curmudgeons have been out in full force recently. Kathleen Parker mounted a passionate defense of good old fashioned books in her column last week. Malcolm Jones praised the slow reading movement in a recent issue of Newsweek. Brent Staples of The New York Times just described the internet as a sort of plagiarism superhighway, a tool that encourages young people to cut and paste other people's thoughts rather than to think their own. And David Brooks recently wrote that the internet culture is much shallower than what he calls literary culture, which prizes long study and intellectual heft.

I feel a certain kinship with the curmudgeons. Few other people are making the case for virtues like patience, focus, deep thought, and long, good books that demand time, attention and persistence.

I also pity the curmudgeons. They often get tarred as reactionaries, Luddites, bitter-enders and--worst of all--deadweights on school reform.

But the curmudgeons have a point. Recent research suggests that mere access to plain old books can boost students' academic performance, while access to high-speed internet can drag it down. And it turns out that video games, like TV, can shorten our attention spans.

This shouldn't really surprise us. If we simply hand every student an iPad, we just open the doors to distraction. Why spend the time reading a long and difficult text, or doing the hard work of grasping what very smart people wrote many years ago, when you have Hulu, Facebook, games, Youtube and who knows what else at your fingertips? We aren't on the strongest footing when we praise mere access to information as a clarifying force.

So how do the curmudgeons support the cause of ed tech? They remind us that schools must help students learn to use technology for good rather than for evil. IPads, smart phones and the internet are not going away, so it won't do to yank kids back into the 19th century as soon as they pass through a school's doors. Why should schools cede the realm of new media to people who don't always have the best interests of children at heart?

All those new tech tools can do very exciting things in our schools, especially if we use them in the service of decidedly old-fashioned skills. They can be very powerful aids to reflection, research and reason.

Let's hope that the revolutionaries embrace the traditionalists.

Link to this story: http://www.learningfirst.org/champions-technology-should-embrace-skeptics

4 Comments Digg this article Del.icio.us

Technology can definitely be

Submitted by Susan Goding on Wed, 07/14/2010 - 13:11

Technology can definitely be used in the service of traditional education. If curmudgeons want books on paper technology can print out old fashioned books. Non-copyright books can be printed perfect bound or spiral bound for less than $2 each. Here is a good place for that. http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/ Lots of university libraries are digitizing their entire collections. A Google search will show them all their favorite classics available for the cost of paper and ink.

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I have been called "out of

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/14/2010 - 17:37

I have been called "out of touch" and "nostalgic" because I defend books and reading of literature that has stood the test of time. I have colleagues who think we should admire students when they "post" electronic scribbles on Facebook or Twitter. I get papers from students that resemble IM gibberish. I have students from wealthy families who think Silas Marner is too long to read. (Note to anyone under 30: It's not.) And somehow I'm expected to celebrate technology as the great salvation of education. Give me a break.

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I am sure the monks felt the

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/14/2010 - 20:34

I am sure the monks felt the same way when the printing press was created! Giving options to the masses is the power of this information shift. Wish I could have published my thoughs as easy as I can now do. Find this blog ironic for the very tools challenged are being used to make the point! lol :-)

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Susan, thanks for the link. I

Submitted by vonzastrowc on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 05:57

Susan, thanks for the link. I think the curmudgeons should catch on to the fact that the internet makes their lives much easier, and that it can support the curmudgeon lifestyle quite well.

Anonymous #1: Curmudgeons and technology advocates alike should support quality. The internet doesn't have to dumb things down. It can have quite the opposite effect, which is why I believe curmudgeons could add some real value when they realize that technology itself is not the enemy. It can, in fact be quite an ally, but only if you engage in the project of making it better. I did not make that point clearly in my post.

Anonymous # 2: You'll note that this blog does not recommend that we ignore the tools of technology. It recommends that we embrace them. But it also recommends that technology enthusiasts embrace some concerns of skeptics. Simply giving the masses the power of information isn't enough. We have to teach them how to use those tools well, and we have to uphold some fundamental principles that were important before the advent of these technologies. As I noted in a later blog posting, most technology advocates believe this, too--I actually created something of a false dichotomy between boosters and curmudgeons. But I do think people on all sides should climb down from the pinnacles of their rhetoric to acknowledge our common opportunities and challenges, and to ensure that technology in schools can fulfill its promise.

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