Mike Collett (mike@collett.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:13:10 -0000
From: "Mike Collett" <mike@collett.demon.co.uk> Subject: [ifets] tomorrow Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:13:10 -0000
Chris suggested that
>'Tomorrow never comes'
but
"it did yesterday"
this may sound flippant but the point is that by looking to and preparing
for the future actually shapes both the future and the present.
>Have we made full and proper use of the 'old' technologies
We will probably never fully fulfill the potential of any one technology and
we may well be guilty of "a kind of laziness, of not really facing up to
*now*, of avoiding the tedium of making what we have work well because it is
more fun to work at pushing back the frontiers with the few explorers than
to make the plains flourish"
The key is a balance, the two views are not mutually exclusive. It is
foolish not to make the best use of existing technologies where they are
appropriate but equally foolish not to also prepare for the future.
Bob Leamnson suggested that "No technology has ever caused learning."
I think that this is not entirely true. I have a soft spot for McLuhan -
"the medium is the message" - and believe that some technologies change
society. The written word changed learning and had a significant impact upon
linear scientific reasoning that has underpinned most of western education
for hundreds of years. The book certainly changed learning, indeed most
education systems include literacy as a high priority, learning is still
mostly based
around the technology of the book. I guess you can argue that the book did
not *cause* learning, but it is pretty close. Interactive multimedia whether
CD ROM or digital TV will also have an impact. If the new literacies of
video, graphicacy and interactivity become of significant importance then
technology will have brought about a new form of learning.
Where the new technologies score over the old includes their ability to move
towards the zero latency of information and increases the potential for
collaborative
learning. Learners from around the world are able to participate
in and contribute to global projects. This is likely to bring about a new
form of learning. It is not necessarily easily to predict what form it will
take but that there will be one is almost certain. People will learn with
new technologies, and some are doing so now,
whether it is inside or outside of a formal education system. A danger is
that the formal systems do not keep pace and that we end up with a
dissaffected generation.
Appropriate technologies will always find a place, the book as a technology
may never be erased. But inappropriate ones may wither, if not die.
I could run a valid maths lesson using logarithm tables that would lead to
valuable learning
experiences. But new technology has for the most part superceded the old
technology of log tables and to continue to use this old technology just to
get the best use from it seems a waste of time.
We could focus on the "rear view mirror" and consider how the present
education systems and learning situations can be enhanced by new
technologies. The exciting bit is how the new technologies will cause new
forms of learning.
Do not forget that today is yesterday's tomorrow.
Cheers
Mike Collett 7:-D people are the network
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