Several times during the course Graham has referred to the sad situation of the girls who drowned in the car while trying to call for help on their cell phone.
This begs the question....are our students missing out on other more valuable lessons because of our over reliance on technology? The following story (although it starts off topic) illustrates one important lesson i think they are missing out on....
I must admit that I inherited the gift of bullsh*ting from my father who had a long winded explanation for every question I ever asked...even if he hadn't the slightest clue about the formal answer. My Mother would always say..."Peter you are so full of &*%$ ...you have no idea what the answer is!" This would send him off in a scurry off to find an encyclopedia and look up the information. The thing is, more often than not he was pretty close. I was lucky that he usually took the time to explain how he reasoned out a probably answer by combining previously learned knowledge, making reasonable predictions, and deducing the most likely answer.
The odd times that he was wrong (and there were plenty) I realized the power of well crafted argument. The thing was, i believe him everytime because he answers seemed so ....well....believable. At a young age i realized (or was taught) that a carefully articulated arugument, even in incorrect, was usually enough to win over someone who wasn't as confident.
One of my favorite pastimes in school was arguing and debating. I never joined a debate team but loved stirring the pot in the hallways, cafeteria, or on the school bus. It used to drive my friends (one in particular) bonkers as they would often know that I didn't know the answer but couldn't find a weakness in my stance. In most cases, no one would ever go out of our way to actually find out the right answer. In this case, i would argue, that the process of formulating an educated guess or stance for the simple sake of arguing was more important than knowing the right answer. I think that google at our fingertips is robbing our students of those opportunites.
There is nothing i hate more than when i am a party arguing with someone about something and then a random bystander, who is uninvolved in the conversation, chimes in "actually... i just looked it up on my Iphone...and you are wrong."
My response is usually as follows "Damn it...i knew i was probably wrong (or at least incomplete) but i had this guy almost convinced!"
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Yep...it's a good question. Is technology making us stupid? Thoughtless? Or are we becoming more resourceful? Likewise, even if we use technology as a resource, is the information on it (the internet) reliable? It's funny you mention getting into arguments at a party. My family always gets into friendly arguments which usually sends someone to the internet for the answer!! How reliable of an answer to an hour long debate. I think we should start rethinking our sources!!
ReplyDeletehey ryan...i posted a techno response on lana's blog...on the debating issue...you might have enjoyed our school...total house system and everything was a competition...even debates...had to have your wits about you...public speaking was another arena for competition...all for the glory of your house...j.k. rowling must have gone to a similar school for her inspiration in harry potter
ReplyDeleteLove your thoughts Ryan! It reminds me of one of my dad's friends who seemed like a sage to me when I was a little kid, and still does now. He would lean back in his rocking chair, large belly protruding into the air and continue to recant stories or "life lessons." I wonder if the art of "storytelling" in society, as we have known it, will change in future generations?
ReplyDeleteI think technology can make us stupid, if we let it. Maybe we're letting our students slide by too low on Bloom's Taxonomy because it is easier? Addressing technology in the classroom is time consuming, when there is already so much curriculum to cover.
You'll have to check out my comments on Lana's blog.
I have reflected often during the past few years on how much more difficult things would seem to be if I didn't have access to Google. One example is that for a job I did for a while, we needed to look up the mailing fior every elementary school...in Canada. If I couldn't have googled the different school divisions and printed off a list of their schools, I truly think I would still be stuck at my desk, phone glued to ear, working on polishing off the list of schools in P.E.I.
ReplyDeleteIn that case google was very handy. However, now that the popularity of google is so widespread - I think you raise a good point that it's important to take a step back and look at what are both the positive and negative implications of access to so much information. I agree that there is tremedous value in being able to convincingly articulate an argument. And, as Lana pointed out, the source of the internet might not be the most reliable when searching for "the answer". I would like to say I would probably be more apt to believe someone's convincing oral argument than to defer to wikipedia. However, I know I can also fall into the trap of "it it's written - it must be true."
It also makes me wonder about the limitations of this kind of thinking. If "google" becomes the source for all the answers - what happens when there are sources that disagree? If I google "AIDS is a hoax", over 966,000 entries come up. In a culture that might be depending increasingly on google to provide the answers, how will people develop/use their critical thinking skills to evaluate which information online is correct or misleading?
Maybe I should google that question to find the answer...
True true true.
ReplyDeleteI think we often expect things to be either good or bad, but really almost everything is grey - nothing can be black and white.