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There is much concern about the value of technology in youngsters’ lives. Jane Healy’s book, Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds -- for Better and Worse. (Simon and Schuster, NY, 1998) cautions readers about computer use: but any tool, if over or inappropriately used, has shortcomings. Students need variety in instructional delivery, to guarantee novelty craved by the brain, to plant memory richly to facilitate retrieval and whole-brain processing, and to accommodate various learning preferences in a classroom. Technology is one powerful option; but technology does tremendously more than provide variety. It can actually enhance learning.
Unless it Enhances Learning, Technology has No Place in Instructional Delivery Surely technology is "necessary knowledge" for functioning in the 21st Century. But if this is the sole justification for including it in curriculum, it would serve the same purpose as operation of a telephone or typewriter did in the 20th Century. Technology today has a much more fundamental value in classroom instruction as well as in society -- it expands the number of connections within and beyond the human brain through intricate networks of communication. This enhances the brain’s ability to procure and process information, practice skills, and problem solve. When I began high school nearly 40 years ago, there were no computers or calculators. We used slide rules to calculate, typewriters with carbon paper to record, and paper copies to communicate. We anticipated maintaining one job throughout our lifetime; to do otherwise was a sign, many thought, of instability. We chose a profession, became a master within its limited and finite parameters, and maintained a narrow focus of responsibility. But today’s high school graduates are predicted to change professions seven times during their lives: so flexibility, networking, collaboration, and continuing professional growth are expected -- and necessary. Changing departments to advance professionally in the past equates to changing companies and vocations to do the same today. Experience in many areas, with many different situations, actually increases our capabilities in problem solving. And the demands of the work place of the 21st Century will be far broader, complex and more unpredictable than those of today. How does Technology Help? The ability to detect the presence of pattern, identify a pattern, and improvise to problem solving with that discovery demands what William Calvin calls "creative confusion." Creation of new classifications and categories through the reshuffling of earlier experiences and connections is a learned skill. But connections, resources, and availability of collaborative partners are essential to the process: as the number of connections and resources grows, the greater the possible combinations of experience, information and skills to create new and unique classifications. Enter, technology. The human brain is not a linear processor. It is a parallel processor, with multiple networks, feedback loops and interconnections operating simultaneously. Thought results from the input of sensory information through experiences and interaction with one’s environment, coupled with emotion and reason; and it is often spontaneous. All parts of the brain-body interact to create "output," whether that be movement, speech, or thought. Producing in an intelligent fashion is also learned, through employment of metacognitive strategies, the generation of ideas, and the engagement of the brain through open-ended tasks that promote parallel processes rich with choice. If a student is empowered to solve problems, construct meaning, think with content, apply skills and collaborate to problem solve, that student will be engaged. Technology can be used to teach children to sort, edit, classify and think critically. Teachers can orchestrate learning environments whereby student production is directed by standards and expectations in the form of learning criteria, where students emerge from the use of technology through concern for "headware, not hardware" (Ian Jukes, Professional Development Center, Calgary). Students can be effectively empowered to access vast and seemingly limitless resources via technology, while critically analyzing its value and worth. Guided educational activities can require its application in an open-ended task. Human brains do grow intellectually with enriched, stimulating environments. Such growth comes when the brain stretches beyond standard existing connections and forms new ones: new combinations, new categories. It is process that grows a brain, not product. It is the functioning of a brain to gain this understanding, perceive this pattern, and comprehend. And technology can be the vehicle. o Science: The WHY Files © Susan J. Jones |
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Technology: Another Toy. . . Or a Valuable Tool?