- SUGGESTS A DIFFERENT PEDAGOGY in contrast to traditional educational programs: constructivist+student-centric+inquiry-based learning—students as makers of meaning / signals a potential change of authority in the classroom / free or cheap access to knowledge and skills that were only available to the elite (MIT open courses / ITunesU) / promotes an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit
- ALLOWS FOR DISTRIBUTED + ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING: Khan Academy / I Tunes U / Carnegie Mellon / Web 2.0-3.0-? / Moodle and Blackboard
- AVAILABILITY OF INEXPENSIVE CUSTOMIZED + INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING: School of One, Time to Know, accommodates different learning styles (audio, visual, textual)
- ALL MEDIA BECOMES PORTABLE: broadening range of media and ways to represent ideas / visual literacy-mind-mapping [Inspiration, Mind Manager etc.] / adaptation to learning styles / smartphones and IPad—you can carry it with you
- PROVIDES ACTIVE REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION + COLLABORATION: smartphones / chat / wikis / Facebook / virtual presence / Google docs / Gaming
- PROVIDES ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT: integrated messaging, calendaring, and tasks [Google Apps / Google Wave / Microsoft Exchange / project planning software
- SUPPLIES COMPREHENSIVE ARCHIVING and DOCUMENTATION of work, experiences, thoughts, ideas: Bibliographic and Archival Databases [EndNote / Evernote / DevonThink] Integrated video, sound, text, still image, mapping
- PUSHES ONE TO AN INTEGRATED LIFE-EXPERIENCE (blending life & work): social networking [Schools on Facebook, BJ Fogg’s course at Stanford], 21st century skills expectations, allows for easier connections to be made across disparate fields (hypertextual interdisciplinarity—George Landow)
This is the blog site for the technology committee at the Lawrenceville School. We hope to use this site as a place for discussion about the role of technology in a Lawrenceville education, bringing in the voices of teachers, students, parents, alumni, and the world at large. We will also maintain a collection of related resources here.
Disruptive Technology
SOME “DISRUPTIVE” TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES we need to respond to:
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An interesting article in the current Poets and Writers magazine: http://www.pw.org/content/digital_digest_writers_rolling_back_the_revolution. Discusses various ways that writers are pushing back on connnectivity and the disruptive intrusion of technology into the deep concentration required for creativity and writing. Topics include minimalist word processors; retro text editors like Readability, which reformats webpages for readability (and strips out ads and other distractions); and strategies for disconnecting from the web (including software blockers that won't allow you to waste time the web). Sven Birkerts, editor of Agni magazine: "Concentration is no longer a given. It has to be strategized, fought for."
ReplyDelete@Chris - Lifehacker just had a good review of "distraction-free" writing tools: http://lifehacker.com/5689093/top-10-tips-for-better-writing
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I think these are probably "reduced distraction" tools. Learning how to "tune out" and get into the Flow (Csikszentmihalyi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) ) is an experience we need to provide for our students.
Bill Freitas.
A different take on the fragmentation/distraction lament: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/11/attention-versus-distraction-what-that-big-ny-times-story-leaves-out/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NiemanJournalismLab+(Nieman+Journalism+Lab)
ReplyDeleteHamlet's Blackberry also makes the distraction point well, but while I agree that we all need to find ways to ensure that we disconnect enough to have time for deep reflection and thought, we also need to build our skills functioning in a fast-paced, connected world. Also, as a wrote in response to your post in the pros and cons discussion, interestingly the best creative writing courses I've taken have been online - not because we were writing online, but because it was a much more effective way to receive thoughtful feedback. Perhaps the key is to figure out where and when technology helps and where and when it does harm to what we're trying to do.
ReplyDelete