Both/And: The Price of Learning with Technology
I am an advocate of infusing technology with regular instruction. I think about some of Gordon's MANY articles about Robot's taking our jobs. Yes, technological advances are happening rapidly. I was really taken aback by the analogy of technology's growth on the chess board - one grain of rice on the first square, doubled each time it moves to the next square, is A LOT of rice. To consider that we are only seeing a half life of technology is scary. Consider the possibilities.
Even still, I believe that we must educate our children to live WITH technology because it isn't going anywhere. MJG suggests, "It might be better at this point not to think of the traditional classroom and the hybrid/blended classroom as two completely separate learning environments but as being on a continuum of physical, logical, and conventional constraints."
I am forced then, to consider balancing human connections with technological interactions, and how the culture of traditional classrooms spill over into any virtual learning communities. Human connections and soft skills are paramount, even in the face of living with advanced technology but I would like to focus on the latter conundrum. Students learn and understand the community in which they belong. As a building leader, how will you address or manage the physical classroom dynamics (like bullying) that finds its way onto social media and other technologies?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
T. A. Cornute
I am forced then, to consider balancing human connections with technological interactions, and how the culture of traditional classrooms spill over into any virtual learning communities. Human connections and soft skills are paramount, even in the face of living with advanced technology but I would like to focus on the latter conundrum. Students learn and understand the community in which they belong. As a building leader, how will you address or manage the physical classroom dynamics (like bullying) that finds its way onto social media and other technologies?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
T. A. Cornute
It seems to me that we often conflate two major components of technological advancement when we talk about education and technology.
ReplyDeleteThe first is the advancements in the ability of technological systems to do the work currently done by a human worker in a way that is more desirable to the worker's current employer. This could come in the form of higher productivity per hour in the same amount of space, reduced legal liabilities, reduced associated systems needs that come with employing humans (restrooms, cafeterias, lights, heating, etc.), and reduced costs with a move from labor to capital as the source of production. If the industry and economy creates competitive forces that drive companies to pursue increased automation, those companies would go out of business if they don't automate and others do. Economy-wide, this can generate a prisoners' dilemma where we need people with the money to buy products and services, but companies that choose to keep employees (and therefore created people with money) when they could automate will be out-competed by companies that automate. Fortunately, we are not yet at the point where the number of possible jobs is less than the size of the workforce in a way that would necessitate something akin to a universal basic income (or a shared ownership of capital-based production). In schools, we can respond to this pressure by ensuring our curriculum teaches students the skills needed to succeed and adapt in the modern economy, whether that be education in a not-easily-automated field or--even better--the drive and ability to learn a new skillset as current ones become obsolete.
The second aspect is the increase in worker productivity associated with better tech tools. The best chess AI can beat the best chess player in the world consistently, but a moderate chess player with a decent AI as a resource can beat the best AI and the best player separately. Workers who know how to use modern automated tools are orders of magnitudes more productive than workers without those tools, and education needs to address this by giving students the opportunity to learn how to use and develop these tools.
The second