November 2007 — News

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The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education

by Patricia Deubel, Ph.D.

The former, as indicated in a recent national survey (U.S. Students, 2007), calls for schools to teach more than basic skills, incorporating "21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, computer and technology skills, and communication and self-direction skills into their curriculum" (para. 3). This is specific, and I agree. However, in terms of the latter, I also agree with Neil Postman, author of The End of Education (1995), who stated that "education is not the same thing as schooling, and that, in fact, not much of our education takes place in school" (p. ix). Schooling should instill children with a sense of global citizenship, healthy intellectual skepticism and appreciation of the role of mistakes, respect for American traditions, appreciation for its cultural diversity, and awareness that controlling the language with which we address the world advances humanity.

Fueling the Debate
To add fuel to the debate, "All technological change is a Faustian bargain" (Postman, 1995, p. 192). Each change is filled with both good and ill, and we should at least be aware of certain principles with regard to any potential implementation. According to Postman:

  1. For every advantage a new technology offers, there is a corresponding disadvantage.
  2. The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population.
  3. Every technology has a philosophy, which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies, in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards.
  4. A new technology usually makes war against an old technology. It competes with it for time, attention, money, prestige, and a "worldview."
  5. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.
  6. Because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, different technologies have different intellectual and emotional biases.
  7. Because of the accessibility and speed of their information, different technologies have different political biases.
  8. Because of their physical form, different technologies have different sensory biases.
  9. Because of the conditions in which we attend to them, different technologies have different social biases.
  10. Because of their technical and economic structure, different technologies have different content biases. (Excerpts from pp. 192-193).

Thus, it appears that for any potential implementation of technology in education, consideration should be given in a debate on effectiveness to intellectual, emotional, political, sensory, social, and content biases that come with the change.

Changing Thinking
If technology changes everything and we desire to incorporate those aforementioned 21st century skills into the curriculum, then we as educators also need to consider how technology changes thinking.