Will High-tech kids still think deeply?

High-tech kids will still have the opportunity to think deeply. While new technology has pushed every aspects of life to an incredibly fast pace, I still believe that there is a lot of room for critical thinking. In many ways, technology has provided the motivation and the means. Alvermann and Heron (2001) shared a story about an adolescent, Robert, who spent many hours at the public library, using the internet, to read about the Japanese animé Dragon Ball Z. Robert and his friend also had discussions analyzing DBZ characters, predicting upcoming plots, and researching multiple sources of information. However, when asked, Robert said he was not interested in reading. Robert has also been labeled by his school as being at risk of dropping out of school due to low reading achievement. In this case, Robert was practicing many critical literacy skills, but just not in a classroom or with school materials.

Tarlow and Spangler (2001) stated that the quick pace of a movie or audiotape may not allow a person to reflect deeply about the message while one may have more opportunities to think critically while reading and writing. I feel that there exist a huge element of motivation when it comes to critical thinking. For Robert, the motivation for him was the availability of the information in the subject matter that he loves on the Internet. For others, the thrill of looking at the number of hits on their website or weblog is enough to motivate them to write more and write critically.

On the side, it is ironic that sometimes in the place where critical thinking and writing is required, the joy of reading and writing is lost. A fellow student once commented that she used to love reading until she entered graduate school!

References

Alvermann, D.E. & Heron, A.H. (2001). Literacy identity work: Playing to learn with popular media. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45, 118-122.

Tarlow, M. & Spangler, K.L. (2001). Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply? The Education Digest, 67, 23-27.

McLuhan Tetrad

As I was reading the different wikis answering McLuhan tetrad questions on the different technologies, I reflected on the impact these technologies had on education and in my own life.

Information Superhighway
I frequently go on the Information Superhighway to retrieve information for school and work. In many ways, the advent of this technology has made searching for information so much more efficient. While this superhighway can lead me to almost infinite places, it will only take me to where I want to go. And looking at the 2005 Top 10 searches on Yahoo!, for majority of people, in my opinion, the superhighway led to nowhere great.

Internet Communication/collaboration tools
For someone who is living half a world away from home, the internet communication tools have made connecting to home so much easier and affordable. The internet is a great communication tool but, I feel, it is being underutilized in terms of collaboration. But it is ironic that while an email is almost instantaneous, it can sometimes take me more than 2 weeks (or even longer) to respond to a friend’s email and vice-versa. While these are great tools, they really depend on the users to utilize them to their maximum potential.

Stand-alone tutorials
For some reason, the phrase, stand-alone tutorials, sounds aversive to me. Maybe it’s because of the numerous CD softwares that I had browse through that did not catch my attention. I would probably not work on a stand-alone tutorial program unless it is a requirement. Perhaps many poorly designed programs have led this tool to its overextension before we have a chance to realize its potential.

Video games
As an entertainment technology, videogames are almost without any competition amongst the young and the young at heart. As an educational tool, the potential has not been realized yet. I do not foresee videogames being an educational tool on its own, but the combination of a stand-alone tutorial and a good videogame might just work. So instead of buying the videogame itself, parents could select a 10th grade World History tutorial combined with a popular videogame version.

Simulations
This is one technology tool that I have no experienced of. Although I have spent countless hours playing The Sims and SimCity, I feel that simulation technology is still at its infancy.

Tools Software
I believe that the usage of this technology would hardly lead to over-extension, at least in my life. Tools software has made so many tasks easier and faster, to the point that poor usage of a software can often be good enough. For example, I once overheard a lady telling her friend that she had to log on to two computers to complete her tasks. I was thinking,” Wow, she must have a lot to do." Then the lady explained to her friend that she used one computer to email her father and the other computer to google something. And when the friend asked why she did not just open two windows on one computer, the lady replied, “You can do that?"

Media Effects debate

After much thought and consideration I have decided that I am more comfortable with Clark’s position that media will never influence learning (Clark, 1994). I agree with his viewpoint that media is the vehicle where instruction is presented. And that media in of itself does not affect learning. From the perspective of special education, I have yet to see any area of instruction where media influences learning. While there are increasing number of softwares and hardware designed for special education, I feel that these were developed just for the sake of using a particular media.

In his article, Clark referred to a counterexample in which computer simulation was used to teach students skills and he responded that people had learn to fly planes before the availability of computers, thus computers were not essential in the learning of this task. I tried to come up with an example of a newer task that developed after the availability of computers and came up with this: Astronaut training. Astronauts go through many hours of computer simulation to learn to fly a space shuttle. It seems, in this case, the media which is computer simulation, is absolutely essential for the learning task. But then, the media here is also part of the task. Learning to use the computer simulation is part of the task and not the learning itself. The many hours employed in learning this task is basically drill and practice, which is nothing new.

While Kozma (1994) provided examples of successful media-based instructional projects, Clark referred to meta-analytic evidence that showed that the media in these media-based projects was confounded by the method. As both Clark and Kozma agreed that there is yet evidence to support the claim that media influence learning, I would require scientifically-based evidence that proved that media in itself could increase learning. Nathan and Robinson (2001) argued that whether media affect learning depends upon one’s view of learning and learning agency. Or maybe "media effects" is not universal, perhaps in some instructional task, media plays a small role while in another, media’s role may be absolutely essential for learning.


References

Clark, R.E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research & Development, 42, 21-29.

Kozma, R.B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research & Development, 42, 7-19.

Nathan, M., & Robinson, C. (2001). Considerations of learning and learning research: Revisiting the “Media Effects” debate. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 12, 69-88.