Technology: significant benefits but …

A friend of mine was recently bemoaning the large numbers of people who appear to have lost the art of conversation and being with people because they spend much of their time accessing various electronic devices such as music and video players, mobile phones, portable gaming consoles and the like.  To be honest, I had to agree and added the difficulties that I’d experienced with interrupting people concentrating on surfing the Internet, playing the latest console game, listening to music or talking on the mobile phone.

 

The technology is clearly bringing significant benefits for many people but only the other day, I was reminded of the negative impact of the technology on learners in schools.  I asked a group of older students to carry out some research as part of an assignment for a course they were following.  Two things happened. 

1. When we discussed possible sources of information, the first thing mentioned was – no prizes for guessing – the Internet.  The Internet has justifiably gained ground as a important source of information.  However, a significant number of the group failed to identify books as a source of information and most failed to identify other people – some even refused to acknowledge books and other people as reliable and valid sources of information!  There is clearly something wrong with what we are doing with ICT in schools if pupils regard the Internet as the only source of information and see it as a source that doesn’t have to be questioned.
2. The second thing was perhaps more worrying.  I asked them to organise themselves so that each person took responsibility for researching an aspect of the task which they could then feed back to the rest of the group in whatever form the group decided was appropriate.  Many of them were reluctant to do this, could not see the point of this way of working and simply wanted to get back to their computers to use the Internet and “get on with the work”.  Few wanted to visit the school library to do research and even fewer were prepared to take responsibility for questioning the people identified as a source of information.

The Internet and other forms of technology are set to become ever more important and quite right too.  However, if one of our responsibilities as teachers is to prepare learners for life after school, then it follows that we have a duty to know the technology, its benefits, limitations and drawbacks and help pupils use it appropriately, safely and securely. How we do this is subject to debate but failing to do so is inappropriate, ignores significant opportunities for learning and many would claim, dangerous.

Long live learning! Long live technology!