Thursday, December 4, 2008

Are they paying attentinon?

In the video “Are you paying attention?,” the authors juxtapose Howard Gardner’s widely accepted ideas of multiple intelligence learning with something more provocative. That children are digital learners.

After a series of statistics demonstrating the penetration of digital technology in youth lives, the logic is assumed. If students watch television, surf the internet, etc. they must be learning.

I’m not sure if I fully buy it.

I do believe in the use of technology to meet curricular and instructional goals. And after a semester of thought, I am a much more assured believer in technology’s role within learning as a social process. My resistance is in the passive role that technology often plays in people’s lives. Is there nothing more disheartening than watching a youth sitting inside watching television when they could be outside playing a sport, climbing a tree, or exploring a forest?

Children are digital receivers of content. They are also certainly digital targets for commerce. And they do learn something in their day-to-day interaction with technology. I’m just not sure what that is. But leveraging the inherent enthusiasm and rampant participation rates for mobile technology, video games, mass media, etc., certainly is a fertile area for investigation. Otherwise, why am I in a program titled Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education?