I recently watched a number of videos regarding the role of technology in our student’s lives. I found these videos very interesting. They touch on some very key points. Many of them included points about how students are more exposed, they share many of the private thought in very public forums. Conversations and information once only shared with the closest of friends in posted all over multi social networds for the consumption of 300+ friends. One young student even commented “most people only really have 50 best friends” I thought to myself “What?”. “50 best friends?”. I have 2.
Another point being that students think they are mutitasking well, but educators disagree and a study done on those students who were excessive multitaskers showed that these students do not perform any of their tasks well. Professors found that even the smartest people amoung us, students at MIT, are passing exams in which they should be scoring nearly 100% just by listening to lecture and doing assigned reading and are only scoring 75% on these exams. Students are unable to give anything their undivided attention. At another point in the video series an educator at a school which was saved from near ruins by technology, commented that we are preparing students for a job market that will require them to be problem solvers. This seems like a paradox to me. How will students be problem solvers if they cannot focus on one thing at a time and are kidding themselves into believing they are great multitaskers?
But with all of these interesting points, the one that struck me the most was that with the technological advancement of the written word and the printing press came the loss of oral traditions and the need to memorize poetry and stories. So is it really that we are embarking on a change so revolutionary are the development of the written word? And are all of the other questions being asked just part of the process?
I think that it is a revolution. I think that for those of us that were born before the revolution began there is an inherent fear of what the future holds. The definition of that a "best friend is" is changing. And we have to accept this. When the written word was developed we lost alot but what we gained sustained us for centuries. I do think that with every human revolution there is a need to reflect back on those aspects of human development that had value before the revolution and should be carried through to the next frontier.
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