The last paragraph of this article summarizes the thesis and makes a strong statement. Do you agree or disagree and why?
I could not agree more that “unwired, unplugged, and unconnected learning” needs to be protected.
Technology--educational or personal--is already deeply embedded into our daily lives. I do not believe a significant number of people suggest we go backwards (this author--Bauerlein--included). However, it is incumbent upon the “elders” (teachers!) of the tribe to be models of best practice, and that means modeling the benefits of slow, deliberate study, much the same way the Slow Food movement has evolved. It’s a question of quality of study, their future, and their health; we have statistics that many struggling teens are sleep deprived because they are using technology until the wee hours. Sleep deprivation is a possible cause of aggression and a major cause of inattention. Therefore, I’ll make the leap and suggest the addictive nature of technology contributes to an inability to understand complex text. I can say with some certainty that the frenetic activity of online games and social networking did not exist a couple of decades ago, and you’d be hard-pressed to find major articles from that time focusing on teens staying up until 3:00 a.m. So...yes, I’m making the connection that the easy and never-ending availability of cyber “connections” has contributed in large part to fragmenting many students’ attention and rendering them unready for the rigors of advanced study.
Many schools seem reluctant to create and maintain expectations for students unless those expectations mirror-or mimic--the technologies of student extracurricular life. I believe our culture is doomed, unless, as Bauerlein indicates, we find a way to slow learning, and convey to young people that their egos and opinions hold only so much sway--that there are writings critical to our existence as a democracy that require our careful attention and thorough comprehension and that stand apart from us personally. There is value in learning not to expect every piece of information to entertain us in some People-magazine sort of way. If we fail to convey this lesson to students, if study and learning is seen as bouncing around to sample a plethora of resources simply because they are brief and available, we will not be graduating students who are college-ready.
Abbi, I couldn't agree more with what you had to say! I agree that online games, social media etc are becoming addicting to many teenagers. They are becoming distracted, not doing their assigned work, and staying up late. You also brought up a great point by saying that it is vital for us as teachers to model and explain the appropriate way to read and understand text. We need to really stress that not all results are instant, as you said, and that technology is not the answer for everything. It is up to us as teachers to show these students the right way to read/ study, and hope that they take away those great habits as they head to college or a career.
ReplyDelete