I woke up at 0400 this morning thinking about the latest mobile phone technology (the pluses, minuses and implications) and it suddenly dawned on me that up to this point I have been very pro ICT's (information and communication technologies) and in great favour of implementing the use of them in classroom environments but what if I'm wrong?... I'm going to take this opportunity to throw a spanner in the works and stop the cogs from turning momentarily.
I couldn't help but ask myself this morning: Are we falling into possibly the biggest trap in human history?? I mean, over time we have become more and more reliant and dependant upon all of our 'creature comforts' - so reliant and comfortable in fact that we have to sometimes pinch ourselves to see if we are still alive! Our abilities to be self reliant and self sufficient are on the decrease. It's seldom that you see a veggie patch in the back garden and since the introduction of supermarkets we have lost not only our appreciation of the process from seedling to dining table but we have lost fundamental survival skills.
If electricity was turned off tomorrow would we survive? Think about that for a minute... would we actually survive? I have read many reviews on iPhones and similar products about how people have become so reliant on them that they believe that they can no longer live without them. Comments like "my whole life is on here" are not uncommon and when the Internet goes down it's like losing your right arm, wouldn't you agree?
What if we have all been been sucked into an unsustainable way of existence that will one day all end in tears? Wisdom or stupidity? We have geared everything for the advancement of ICT's, our very lives in fact and I find it interesting that an Internet free weekend now seems like a holiday! This whole managing e learning course is about using ICT's to make learning more efficient, effective and applicable for learners, assisting them with the scaffolding of knowledge, comprehension and cognitive development through a familiar means. We are preparing them for life aren't we? Well aren't we? That's the way life is isn't it? We are teaching them to survive in the world but are we teaching them to survive the affects of humanity?
You would have to agree with me that we are limited in resources and it would be ignorant of us to think that we have unlimited resources to fuel our resource demanding and dependant lives. Ken Robinson in his presentation "Is today's schooling killing creativity" stated that if you removed humans from the earth, within 50 years time everything would flourish but if you removed insects from the earth, within 50 years everything would die. This statement really warrants some deep reflective thought...Unless we establish a much more sustainable approach to life and stop taking I can't see how we can sustain the demands that we have created.
We demanded faster food and we got it. We demanded faster transport and we got it. We demanded faster and easier ways to share information and communication and we got it, we demand a lot of things but what if we're wrong? Have we really stopped to think about it? Wisdom, ignorance or stupidity? The real question here is: can we sustain what we have created and if we can't then why are we teaching it?? In the words of Forest Gump: "that's all I've got to say about that". Now on with the ICT show and managing e learning...
I think it is a great idea to question the reliance on technologies. I also love the available technology and thought I would feel embracing of using it within a learning environment but I feel that I am inclined to think critically about the use of technology through my interaction in this course so far. Are the technologies advancing learning for students or are they simply providing a different (new) way of doing the same things? I read my articles on a computer screen today, and out of a textbook at high school.
ReplyDeleteOne goal I would like to meet through this course is to be able to absolutely believe that integrating ICTs is necessary and provides a learning advantage - gives children something that we couldn't give them any other way. At the moment the part of this picture that is emerging is the way ICTs are integrated into our whole lives and children, becoming tomorrow's active citizens do need digital literacy. I also really am struck but connectivism as a theory and its explanation of learning that exists at a group level. The more I think about that, the more I see it evident within social networking constructs, and organisations such as businesses and yes, schools too. Perhaps the difference that technology offers is the reach. Where you could talk to your neighbours, and friends before, now you have access to a global world of possibilities and this extends the opportunities for learning.