Technology in the classroom--my response to the New York Times

In response to the New York Times article “Teachers resist high tech push into Idaho schools” (1/4/12) I had worked up the following response.  After double-checking the Times website, I realized that this would need a scalpel to get it down to 150 requirement!  This was not easy for wordy me but I did it and was gratified to have the Times publish my revised letter on January 6th.  But here are my more complete thoughts about the push to move technology into the center of the classroom.  What follows is the original letter which is excerpted in the Times letter column. 

I would like to commend the teachers who are fighting for an engaged learning experience through Socratic questioning as opposed to computer-based module learning.  I teach at the college level.  Over the past ten years we have witnessed a dramatic increase in active use of technology among children and teens.  Despite the ready access to computers, tablets, smart phones and other information-rich tools, our students come to college with weak attention skills and too often an active dislike of reading and sustained engagement with ideas.  Their knowledge base is far less than that of their parents and older siblings who may not have had ready access to technology. While they can text-message the average adult under the table, they do not demonstrate that they have reaped the rewards promised exultantly by the manufacturers of technology.

Do we really think little Jessica is shifting through the overwhelming amount of peer-reviewed material available on the web and avidly absorbing knowledge?  Rather she spends five minutes copying and pasting from Wikipedia or SparkNotes into her assignment and the other hour and a half on FaceBook, Twitter or flitting from hyperlink to hyperlink. While video sites do offer rich material on history and current events, you have to resist the siren call of the hilarious “Hitler Rants” videos and the hundreds of other clever postings, wildly inaccurate but seductively entertaining. While the web may provide information if does not equip the student with the critical thinking skills to discern the good from the bad or ridiculous, despite what Governor Otto hopes.

I teach online graduate classes and really enjoy them but have serious reservations for their value for undergrads, much less pre-college students.  Our young people need to learn how to look someone in the face, engage with persons in active dialogue, read body language and develop their personhood.  None of this is done easily, if at all, on a computer.  Ann Rosenbaum strikes me as a tech savvy young teacher.  She is absolutely right in cautioning against the substitution of technology for quality face to face engaged inquiry.  Her students will succeed in college and in the business world because they will know how to talk with one another, work through differences of opinion, have and use information productively, and solve problems critically and cooperatively.  None of this is achieved by plugging into the web and interacting with a mouse.