Revisiting Technology & Education

I read a column in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer by a fellow educator and felt it was worth a response.

Hysterical claims sometime obfuscate legitimate beliefs. In the column, Grant Calder pokes fun at the people who exaggerate the importance of the present, and rightly calls into question whether "we live at the most important juncture not just in the four-billion-year history of the planet, but in the history of the cosmos". That is surely an unprovable claim, and deserves to be called out as hyperbole.

But if we put aside the loftiness of the "most important juncture . . . in the history of the cosmos" statement to look at what those claims are based on, there is plenty to suggest that the digitalization of information does have us in a the midst of a sea change in educational objectives and practices. This is a reality that the educational world is grappling with, and the potential outcomes are myriad.

As Grant points out (he also teaches at a Friends' school so I'm sure he is used to being called by his first name), the mere development of new technology is not likely to create a new type of human existence. Analog-era skills like communication and personal responsibility are no less important today than they were in past generations.

Bottom line - there may be drum-beaters who carry their beliefs too far, but let's not miss the accurate notes they strike.

More Technology

One looming sea change in the field of literacy is the emergence of e-book readers like the Kindle or the Nook which will be rolled out by Barnes & Noble this holiday season.

The increased availability of these devices and download-able books will have some people saying, "It's about time!" while others will be decrying the death of literature. Hyperbole abounds.

Literacy is evolving, but not going away. Neither are books. They will simply be joined by new devices that, who knows, may even help boost literacy.