Post #1: The Evolution of Technology and What it Means for Educators
I grew up during what I see as the brink of a major shift in technological use amongst modern-day populations. During my childhood and adolescence, things changed quickly as I went from using my Grandmother's dial-up computer to getting an iPhone in my teen years. I learned cursive writing in elementary school, and was also present when it was promptly replaced with typing. As I grew up, I hadn't heard of iPads or Google Suite or Instagram, but am now highly active on all of those platforms.
Although I have never lived in a completely non-computerized society, I am interested in the effect that the world's current "infodemic" - a term coined by the World Health Organization - has on our children (2020). According to the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that " by 2025 ...463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally – that’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day" (WeForum, 2019). With an overwhelming amount of information, I can't help but think that it's not the content itself that is important to teach to my students, but teaching them how to approach the new information they are flooded with each day. One article in particular contained a probing question that lead me to my inquiry in the first place: "[w]hat knowledge is of such intrinsic value that each child from every culture must have and share it within the 'global village'?" (Bitter, G. G. and Pierson, M., 2005). In a world where such a vast amount of knowledge is at our fingertips, and where we can interact with anyone in any part of the world at any given moment, what skills and information are the really most valuable for our students?
In reflection of my own education, one skill stands out as most important in every real-world situation: critical thinking. Knowing how to approach information objectively, question appropriately and form my own conclusions has allowed me to embrace new learning opportunities more openly and in-depth. The question I now have is this: How can technology be utilized effectively to promote critical thinking in elementary-aged students? I look forward to exploring this further as I reflect throughout this course.
References
Bitter, G. G., Pierson, M. (2005). Using technology in the classroom. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
Dejardins, Jeff. (2019). The World Economic Forum. How much data is generated each day?. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/how-much-data-is-generated-each-day-cf4bddf29f/.
World Health Organization. (September 23, 2020). "Managing the COVID-19 infodemic: Promoting healthy behaviours and mitigating the harm from misinformation and disinformation." Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news/item/23-09-2020-managing-the-covid-19-infodemic-promoting-healthy-behaviours-and-mitigating-the-harm-from-misinformation-and-disinformation.
There is nothing that has caused a greater rift in pedagogical theory than the technological boom that has happened since the massive adoption of the computer in the 90s. I was lucky enough to have an affinity for computers and spent a lot of my free time messing around with them in my teens, having no idea what a useful skillset that this would become.
ReplyDeleteYou posit "critical thinking" as the big skill that needs to be pushed in schools, and in many respects I agree with you. I wonder whether technology has really aided in the development of this skill or hindered it. On the one hand, there is so much more information out there and current events spread like wildfire these days, which provides ample opportunity for critical thinking to be adequately utilized. But on the other hand, the technology that is out there is almost "anti-technology" technology - everything has been simplified for use of the masses, but this has largely removed a lot of the necessary skill that would normally be required to produce the same results.
An easy example of this is photography, which used to require a lot of different skills in order to get the shot just right. Now there are limitless filters and digital techniques that can make every picture a 10/10. Very few people are the ones who are actually developing the software and hardware necessary to create this software that is so widely used, which is what is actually responsible for making the magic happen in the photograph.
A friend and I once had a discussion about how the world of the future would have Google perfectly integrated into people's brains so that all documented information would be always be at the fingertips of everyone on the planet. What then would the purpose of schools be?
We concluded that the ability to create new "Google entries" (creativity) and the ability to discern between "true and false" information (critical thinking) would likely be the only skills that are necessary to be cultivated by students of that age. This world sounds like something out of science-fiction, and that may be the case, but it certainly provides fertile grounds for discussion on 21st-century learning.