Are we there yet?

Above is a view of Prensky’s that is rather like Carr, a little more cautious about technology perhaps? I think his introduction here is not about being cautious about technology, but it comes from his desire to show that he sees “the other side”, he even refers to the book The Shallows as being one that is overly cautious of technology. He uses his ability to see the other side as a way to make sure that the reader sees he is being fair and that his conclusion is right. At least that is how I see it. His bottom line: it is about how we use technology not whether we should use it. I think he is right here. This is the first time where he seems more even keeled, than he has seemed throughout the rest of the book.

Carr spends a lot of time in this chapter sharing research and studies that were done that demonstrate some of the challenges of reading and retaining information that is read on the computer.

He also shares a metaphor that I think really helps visualize what is happening in our brain when we read on the computer, with all the “extras” vs. reading a book.

This is interesting.

I love thinking about how much more reading kids are doing than before, but it is al little disturbing to think about there being less in –depth reading. The whole idea Carr focuses on throughout the book is about how we are rewiring our brain. The real questions here are, I think, are we changing our brain for the better? How do we know?

This too is an interesting picture, especially in light of the dense history of communication through print, does it seem like we are going backwards?

Carr also counteracts with some small studies that indicate there could be some benefits to surfing the Net as well.

This particular study indicates that it may be possible to expand our working memory. That seems to me to be a huge benefit, if it is in fact accurate and would work for everyone.

SO what is the bottom line? Carr quotes the writer Sam Anderson here:

According to him, the bottom line is, we are not going back.

This might bring one to conclude we should look at the positives of the Net and move on. I do think that we should be doing this. It is not going anywhere, it would be wise,and I think Prensky would agree, for us to embrace it, BUT as Carr indicates, it is also wise to be wary. That although we may be gaining some kinds of intelligece that is different or good from the use of the NET. We are losing other types of intellegence. Is there a final answer? A single answer of what is best, or what is the most wise?

No, there is not one answer. The most wise action we can take is to educate our students with technology since they WILL be using it OFTEN in both their schooling and in their work as they get older. BUT we should also be giving them skills to work off the computer. We should make sure we are also developing their deeper level thinking skills. It seems to me that there is not much of a medium ground when you ask teachers’ their opinions on technology. People seem to feel pretty strongly for or against the use of technology in the classroom. And it seems that it is taking a long time and is a slow process getting technology in the classroom.

I know for myself, before this class, I was more on the side of the fence of people who discouraged the use of technology. That does not mean that I did not use it, or that I did not give my students assignments that they were required to use technology, but I was SO wary. After reading these books and seeing how much more there is out there for teachers than I even realized, I feel like my eyes have been opened a little bit more. I still want to make sure I am giving my students skills that develop higher level thinking, but I also feel pretty strongly about making sure that my students will be well prepared for what will be asked of them as they move through the years, which means using technology and encouraging the use of it throughout the school.

~I still prefer reading a book, but since I am savvier at reading, highlighting and taking notes now on the computer, it is not annoying and does put me a little ahead when it is time to put my post together. Since my notes are already typed, it is easier to make them into a post.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton.(Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Carr gave me a lot to think about this week…

One thing Carr mentioned that stuck out to me in this week’s reading was about how people often have three screens open in front of them at once. This struck a chord with me since I have found myself in that same situation, sometime with even four screens in front of me at once. This has been especially true since I have been in Graduate School.  I imagine what it is like for our students who are growing up with this being the new normal. That having multiple screens around and being constantly surrounded by this technology is expected behavior.

According to Carr (2010), print is falling from popularity in so far as how often it is read. This includes not only newspapers and magazines, but books as well. This makes me kind of sad, no matter the benefits of reading on a screen; I don’t think I will ever prefer it, at least when reading for pleasure, over reading a book.

I wonder how Prensky would categorize reading books vs. the same book digitally? Digitally wise, or digitally clever?

This week Prensky (2012) goes into great detail over different actions that make us digitally wiser.

One example is email. This I, I think, really important to pay attention to since it seems like there are so many ways to be digitally dumb, when it comes to email. Mistakes can be made that could not be made while penning a letter, which leads to another interesting thought by Carr. About how some outdated technologies still get used, like vinyl records, but that using this outdated technology is a progressive “dead end”. It does not move us forward in developing new technologies. Letter writing still gets used, and “snail mail” is still around, but it is not progressive.

Another topic Carr (2010) mentions that I found intersting is this:

I had always looked at it from a different perspective. That being able to physically highlight in a textbook for example, is better because it involves more cognitive processes. Where Carr uses the same argument for why reading on a computer is more beneficial. Hmmm… that is something for me to ponder.

Here is something else for me to think about as a special ed teacher.

Having all these distraction can be extremely detrimental to some students. So there is a fine line between making sure our students are being taught the latest and greatest technologies, but also helping them to figure out what kind of learners they are so we can teach them to sift through and find the right type of technology for them. And the flip side, some amazing things are possible for children with disabilities because of technology as well, so teaching the right tools for each individual student is part of what we should be doing as well. I think Prensky would agree, doing so, would be digitally wise.

~I was actually starting to get used to reading, highlighting and taking notes on the computer for this assignment. I finally felt like I got a system going between flipping between the screens with the books, creating screenshots and taking notes on word. THEN I needed to highlight two words on a page in order to take a screenshot. It was the first two words on a page and it was continuation of a quote, so I really needed it. I could not get it to work. It either highlighted everything on that page, but the first two words. OR when I got it to highlight those two words, the “highlight or note” screen did not come up. After about seven tries I gave up. Then a fellow classmate suggested I download the Kindle app for my computer and I was able to get the two words highlighted, but that was a frustrating experience I had this week.

 

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton. (Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Technology: Pros and Cons, still undecided, but learning to embrace it.

I have been reading the two assigned books for this class on an iPad. I have read other books on my iPad and I have read a couple of books on my computer as well. I don’t really like it. I realize there are some advantages to it; you can carry a lot of books without much weight, or the iPad takes up less storage space in your house (I have books everywhere in my house). I love the feel of holding a book and flipping through pages. I did get used to reading on the electronic devices, but I like going back to books. For textbooks I find the iPad even more challenging because even though I have found how you can bookmark pages, I like to write notes and highlight as I read as well (I know how to do this using my computer, but I have not figured it out on the iPad). In addition, I like to quickly flip through pages after I read reviewing what I marked and it is not the same experience to scroll through the pages on the iPad. I also like to see how many pages I have left in a chapter and it is again, harder to just flip through to see what there is left to read. That being said, I am sitting here, surrounded my cell phone, iPad and computer. I like technology and I do think many of my apprehensions will wane as time goes on, I am not so sure that my opinion on reading on the devises will though… I think about inventions over the past century and a half and how people must have felt when cars, TV, or microwaves were invented, and I can’t imagine life without them. This is how students of our generation feel about the internet and devices that literally put the world into their hands with the push of a few buttons. It is our job as educators then to put some of our personal feelings aside and look at the bigger picture; where will this technology be when we release our student to the world? We need to prepare them as best as possible and in this day in age, that means incorporating technology into our teaching.

In the book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr talks about how our brain works in relation to outside stimuli. It describes some of the history in learning how our brain learns and how our neural pathways work. He talks about how our brains have plasticity so they can be rewired (on a side note: I found all of this information incredibly interesting and would like to look into some more of the research experiments he referenced).

One example he gives of how this works is technology.  He has found that he has more difficulty reading lengthy articles or getting lost in a book. He feels like he can’t concentrate for as long and he seems to blame it on the internet. Because the Internet is a quick way to get information and perform tasks that used to take much more time, he does not need to concentrate for as long on tasks. So he has rewired his brain in a way that makes it more difficult for him to concentrate long term on reading actual books or articles. Although he seems to think this is an affliction that many people suffer from, and it may be, I don’t feel that way. I can get lost in a good book. I may have more difficulty concentrating on articles or books that don’t hold as much interest to me, but I don’t feel that is because of the internet, I think it has always been that way for me; if a book holds less interest, it is more difficult to keep my mind on it. It is possible that although I did not grow up with quite as much technology that is available now, I have been around it in more of my younger years than him. Maybe I don’t see the problem as much because I am more used to technology? Maybe this means that our students don’t have this problem at all? Or maybe I am the outlier and he is the norm? Although Carr is an avid user of technology, he seems skeptical of the negative impact it may be having on our brains, and seems, thus far, uncertain of a conclusion on how he feels. On the other hand, Marc Prensky who wrote the Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom, has embraced technology.

Prensky writes, “But whether you are personally for or against modern digital technology (or have, as most of us do, a view somewhere in between), today’s technology is changing your mind- and all of our minds- for the better”. He thinks that technology is making us smarter, in a way that technology is an extension of our brain; he calls us “technology-enhanced humans”.

A piece of being able to embrace technology is about attitude. We need to have a positive attitude to utilize all of the benefits of technology. I appreciate how even though Prensky embraces technology, he recognizes that it can be good or bad depending on how it is used. He notes how there is a difference from an immediate gain that we get from technology from the wisdom, which can take longer to recognize because it is about how we choose to use our new technologies.

It seems to me when thinking about the past; almost all new technology that has been introduced has in some way, made our lives, as humans, easier. Have there been or are there drawbacks? Yes, but ultimately it has been for our bettering. Trying to keep this in mind helps with keeping in line with Prenskys opinion on how a positive attitude towards technology is important to embracing it and to gaining digital wisdom.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton. (Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)