Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom

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Permalink Reply by David Sablatura on July 31, 2011 at 11:37pm

I don't know if technology will make children smarter, but I agree with Gary that it will allow them to break out of the traditional passive learning environment that has plagued our schools. I do believe it will eventually be a great equalizer across the globe. I was reading Tom Friendman's book that Alan suggested called The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Friedman suggests that the democratization of technology and information is changing the world. I am beginning to be a believer. I doubt that the revolution occuring in several countries in the middle east could have happened without mobile technology and the internet. Once the masses have instant access to global information, who knows what will happen? We are only in the infancy stage now of global connectedness.

I also think technology will be a game changer in k12 education. It is already moving that direction in colleges and universities (more than 1 out of 4 college students is taking an online course). We in public ed will find better ways to engage and serve our students (and their parents), or they will find other solutions for their education.

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Permalink Reply by Anne McKenzie on August 4, 2011 at 4:01pm

Like David, I am not sure if technology will "make children smarter."  That depends on how we measure and define smart.  I would argue that students today have more "digital dexterity" than their parents or grandparents.  Students possess more skills in using digital tools to communicate, execute tasks, etc., but to what extent have students leveraged technology to address complex and compelling social problems (both locally and globally)?  If students in a U.S. classroom are connected to and share perspectives with students in a classroom abroad those students may be better equipped to analyze an event from multiple perspectives but are they more likely to disrupt the de facto cafeteria table segregation that occurs in most high school lunch rooms?  Technology alone does not disrupt traditional passive learning environments or change thinking; learning organized around critical inquiry changes thinking.  At one point movies were a new technology but I do not see "movie Friday" representing a paradigm shift in pedagogy. 

I am not sure that I completely agree with Friedman's premise that the democratization of technology and information will change the world in the ways that he suggests, nor do I completely agree that "no wall in the world is secure anymore" and that if governments do not perform "they have a problem."  Paul Krugman's review of Lexus and Olive Tree criticizes Friedman's assumption of a "U.S. triumphant" http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9906.krugman.lexus.html

I agree with others who question the notion of democracy and the march of human freedom as inevitable.  Kurlantzick call this idea "simple minded and dangerous...if democracy is bound to triumph there is no need to work for it."  He also points out that the number of democracies so flawed that they are close to being failed states has doubled between 2006 and 2010.  So will technology make students smarter, not necessarily.  Is global democratization  a preordained happy ending, definitely not.  Understanding the complex system of institutions that make democracy possible and questioning the conditions that impede the progress of democracy would make students wicked smart; leveraging technology to accomplish these goals would help smart students become more efficient.

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