Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply?

Epictetus once said “only the educated are free”. Education not only replaces an empty mind with an open one but allows the individual to get out of the poverty cycle and to climb up the social ladder. We take pride in ensuring our students are literate and ready for the outside world and we constantly look into ways to enhance their learning through the latest technological advancement. But we sometimes forget that the highly regarded technology can cause our downfall.

Tarlow & Spangler asked whether the “conveniences that come with technology…..been beneficial to…. our tendency to reflect and think critically?” (Tarlow & Spangler, 2000. p. 93). Has technology erode the time for us to reflect? Have things been made so convenient that we do not have to think anymore? I remember how as a school student, I was made to read and write book reviews; what I thought of the story, the characters and propose an alternative ending (if the present one disappointed me). A book review had allowed me to exercise my reading, reflecting and writing skills. The simple writing task is in fact, an essential piece of knowledge. Unfortunately, our high-tech kids do not even complete that simple writing task nowadays.

On a positive note, technology has indeed enabled learning to be more exciting and fun. Physics teachers are now able to bring to life uninspiring equations on the textbook through simulations programs. Students are also made to reflect on the technologies they use in their Science class (Anderson, Zenner & Gimm, 2004). The bottom-line remains - students must be made to reflect upon what they have learned; to draw connections from the knowledge and their past experience before learning can be successful.

However, technology has made students lazy. The voice-to-text technology (one does not need to type even!), videos, computer software, have all made them lazy thinkers. They now do not need to think of outcomes of stories. They simply have to click on [ Ending ] to have the concluding chapter displayed in front of their eyes. They do not need to imagine anymore – “That’s the software programmer job!” they say. They do not need to read. They can always play the audio tape that will narrate to them. They no longer discuss with each other – no more peer review (where they are forced to utilize their reflection faculties). After all, the computer is intelligent enough to correct spelling and grammar mistakes and even suggest alternative words to use. Our kids have, in essence, become tekkie-zombies (a term I coined to show their state of mind) - they do not think but merely follow technology blindly.

As pointed out by Martinson (1998), more information is not necessarily better information. Much of the information churned out by technology might not stimulate the student’s intellect, but exist as “noise” that is dysfunctional to social intercourse. A bleak soothsayer will probably echo Tarlow & Spangler and warn us that if we are not careful, we may just be hastening the deterioration of our civilization.

References:

Tarlow, M., & Spangler, K. L., (2002). Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply? The Education Digest. 67(3), 23-27.

Martinson, D. L. (1998). Educators and the New Mass Media Technology: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Contemporary Education, 69(3), 150-154.

Anderson, M., Zenner, M. G., Gimm, J. A. (Nov/Dec 2004). Technology Society: Their impact on each other. Science Scope, 28(3), 20-22.