Children of the Techno-Age

"The technology is here or will be; we must use it because it is there; we will become the kind of people the technology requires us to be; and whether we like it or not, we will remake our institutions to accommodate the technology."
-Neil Postman, Some New Gods that Fail

As did most of my MAC colleagues, I was just approaching adolescence when the internet was beginning to boom. Coming from parents who were a little slower than most to catch the technology wave, I can remember spending friday nights at my best friend's house IM chatting with kids I'd never met before. My parents would have been very concerned. But, we finally did get the internet - dial-up that is - and eventually, I got a cell phone (as a High School graduation present).

Six years later, my 6th grade cousin has her own cell phone - a pink razor that is - and it's constantly superglued to her ear when she makes the 10-block hike to and from school. How ever would her mother get ahold of her if she did not have one?

But I do not criticize my cousin for making this investment for her daughter. To not have done so would be completely out of the norm in our culture. I'm quite sure that without the gadget, my middle-school cousin would be a social outcast, and her mother would be looked at by other parents as being "behind-the-times" or "unconcerned" about her daughter's whereabouts.

As Postman points out in his article Some New Gods That Fail, bringing the highest technology into America's classrooms has become a hot(t) topic for debate among educators. He asks the important question: Is technology serving our children by fostering a more effective environment in which they can learn, or is it merely a crutch they use to avoid traditional disciplines of learning? Does the use of computers in the classroom encourage students to become effective members of a larger society or does it promote individual learning and unhealthy independence?

The introduction of the wiki into the modern classroom has opened the door for students to work together on a project without actually having to meet to discuss anything. Instead of meeting afterschool and fostering healthy, HUMAN interaction, students can go home, get on their own personal computer, blast the radio, sit down and begin "group" work in front of a computer screen. This is a whole new form of social interaction - a virtual group work. And though I see the potential effectiveness for this type of collaboration in an increasingly global society, I'm not convinced that schools should be promoting work habits that by nature foster isolation. We should keep in mind that though technology can be useful, we are treading dangerous ground when it begins to rule us and change our entire mode of interaction.

Let us keep in mind the needs of children, their social development, and their identity formation and let us choose assignments that pay heed to these factors.