Robert X. Cringely (A pen name for Mark Stephens) write in War of the Worlds: The Human Side of Moore's Law about how technology affects the education process. I'll pull out a few interesting points, but the whole article is worth reading.
-------------------
The real power of Moore's Law lies in what the lady at the bank called "the miracle of compound interest," which has allowed personal computers to increase in performance a millionfold over the past 30 years. There's a similar, if slower, effect that governs the rate at which individuals are empowered by the technology they use. Called Cringely's Nth Law of Computing (because I have forgotten for the moment what law I am up to, whether it is five or six), it says that waves of technological innovation take approximately 30 years - one human generation - to be completely absorbed by our culture. That's 30 years to become an overnight sensation, 30 years to finally settle into the form most useful to society, 30 years to change the game.
The key word here is "empowerment." Technologies allow us to overcome limitations of time, distance, and physical capability, but they only empower us when they can be gracefully used by large, productive segments of our society. The telephone was empowering when we all finally got it. Now it is the Internet and digital communications.
Here, buried in my sixth paragraph, is the most important nugget: we've reached the point in our (disparate) cultural adaptation to computing and communication technology that the younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of as essential, central, even immortal. They are ready to dump our schools.
-------------------
(I bolded the last line.)
Later he writes:
"These are kids who have never known life without personal computers and cell phones. But far more important, there is emerging a class of students whose PARENTS have never known life without personal computers and cell phones."
Most of the current generation of parents are comfortable with PCs and the internet. Their children are aggressive in their use of technology.
He makes the point that one of the things that keeps public schools going is reputation. When people work out ways to certify that a person has the equivalent of a high school education, public schools will be in real trouble.
Good article.
---------
Technorati tags: children, public school, public education, education
2 comments:
If the kids are using technology more, then why are they getting dumber?
What, exactly, are they doing with all these wonderful gadgets? Anything worthwhile? Or is it just frivolous and wasteful?
I think the focus of the Cringely article is how technology may make public schools irrelevant. Children are receiving a poor education because of public schools. Public schools have a host of problems due to the way the schools are structured.
I see the effect of technology as being outside the public school system. I think the internet, and technology in general, will be a crutch which helps parents realize they can take charge of the education of the children.
Post a Comment