The thing that I loved about the reading this week was that we learned so much history behind technology. Often, I fall into the trap of thinking of technology as just the most recent things- computers/tablets/smartphones etc. I don't really think of the assembly line, or railroad, or child labor as being "technology."
One of the biggest things that struck me was on page 58, when Postman said, "We believe because there is no reason not to believe." I remember in high school and college, a lot of the teachers spent time teaching us how to discern between "good" sources and "bad" sources. This day in age, you can answer any question by simply "Googling" it. But, we do have to make sure that we really think about the answers that we discover- do they make sense? I think that Postman hits the nail on the head when he states that many people believe anything, simply because information is readily available to anyone with an internet connection these days.
This hit me because I want my students to be able to discern and think about answers to questions. I do not want them believing something simply because they heard it, or saw it on the internet. Sometimes I feel like we are raising a generation of kids who don't have to/want to think because they can just look it up. I want my students to be thinkers, and technology can both help and hinder this.
Kelsie, you make some valid points. I think there is the threat of raising a generation that believes everything and anything and they lack even the most basic discernment skills. And yet we may be in for a surprise. Because there is so much information out there, they might become more critical/discerning just to sift through it all. At least that is my hope. I know that when I was in high school (3 million years ago) the only information we had was books we could find in our school library so we believed anything we could find. Maybe a lot of information is actually a good thing.
ReplyDelete