Blinded by Tools
Learning, Tools, culture, social, teaching Tagged computer delusion, culture, Learning, oppenheimer, Postman, social, Tools May 22nd, 2008
“Once the technology is sunk deep enough into the culture, the social effects that get built on it simultaneously require the technology and aren’t about the technology.”
So true.
Yet we must continually examine those “social effects” rather than get too giddy about the required technologies. Too many discussions are focused on these required technologies (and a google alternatives) rather than looking hard at the social effects that result from new technological “enablers”. Taking the view of Neil Postman and others, technology is not always enabling “good” things. Seamless, transparent technology is certainly the goal in the classroom so that it is the learning that is the focus, not the technology. Otherwise, learning outcomes become secondary to the exciting new technologies and users become blinded by the “technology delusion”. This reminded my of an article worth reading and thinking about, written by Todd Oppenheimer in 1997, titled, The Computer Delusion. Things have evolved since he wrote it, but it is still worth reading. I love this last quotation:
“The purpose of the schools [is] to, as one teacher argues, ‘Teach carpentry, not hammer,’” he testified. “We need to teach the whys and ways of the world. Tools come and tools go. Teaching our children tools limits their knowledge to these tools and hence limits their futures.”
A good reminder…
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I love that last quote,
Fits nicely with another aphorism: I think that it’s easy for those of us who are excited about learning technologies to see our favorite tools as the hammer and every teaching task as a nail.
In a post earlier this year, Ryan Bretag suggested we spend less time asking how we use particular technologies to teach, and more time asking why (a point that, to be fair, people like Larry Cuban have been making for a long time.) I think that “why” question is a good splash of cold water when we start falling prey to the tech delusion.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Hi Steve,
I haven’t been by in a while - nice to see you!
I really like the opening quote you chose. It is so true.
Tracy
May 24th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
@Jason, you are absolutely correct… the “whys” need to be asked and tested all the time. Some critics have seen, and continue to see, technology as a “solution in search of a problem”. There is certainly some truth to that statement and we must always be evaluating and self-evaluating our motives and the results students achieve. I think most great teachers do this all the time. Yet, even for the most diligent of us technology “geeks”, sometimes the appeal of new tools wins out if we are honest.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
@Tracy - Good to hear from you! The whole video from Clay Shirkey is very good, as are others available on YouTube. I’ll have to drop by http://leadingfromtheheart.org and see what is going on with you lately. I think a few months back when you were in transition, I stopped reading and did not go back to see your new diggs. Cheers!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 am
[...] - bookmarked by 4 members originally found by Nemoflow on July 20, 2008 Blinded by Tools http://ransomtech.edublogs.org/2008/05/22/blinded-by-tools/ - bookmarked by 3 members originally [...]