Chapter One

My main concern with Will Richardson's push to include more technology in the classroom is that critical skills will decline even further.  The pattern in education has been to wholeheartedly embrace "new" methods, and throw the "old" ones completely out the window (even though they have proven to be successful).  I think that if education includes too much technology, basic skills will eventually disappear.  (It is already happening in math with the overuse of calculators.)  People learn from being exposed to different methods of instruction, and technology should be only one component of it.  As it is, the average student today wants to be entertained when he/she is taught.  Attention span is shrinking.  Quest for knowledge is diminishing.  And a work ethic is hard to find.  My students admit that they "cannot live with their phones, ipods etc."  And they're not kidding!  What if technology failed?  How would young people survive?

Mr. Richardson references statistics about the widespread use of technology.  But this widespread use is primarily in the area of communication, such as Facebook, IM, email.  Yet at the same time, ironically, we are breeding a generation of users that don't answer their phones, don't respond to emails in a timely fashion, and very often, abuse these forms of communication to gossip about one another.  Students and society in general have become very dependent on technology for simple tasks.  How many among us can still dial a phone number without using our address book?  It's great to use these shortcuts, but how many have a Plan B to employ when Plan A (technology) isn't functioning?

Brain function is the same today as it always has been.  What has changed is attitude.  The typical students think that they are entitled to be fed information in the most palatable manner.  And that the information should repeatedly be explained to them until they can repeat it.  But our current world of education has forgotten an old Chinese proverb, "I hear and I forget; I see and I rememberm, I do and I understand."  What's missing today in public education is the commitment of the student to "do".

Overall, I am in favor of the use of technology in education, but only where it is appropriate, and as long as it is nor overused.  I am interested to see what new technology tools I will learn that I might be able to use in my classroom.