ON AUTOPILOT...
I got quite an economic education reading these chapters. While I had a broad knowledge and understanding of how America developed economically and technologically, this author's prepective was a great lense in which to reflect on these events in our history. I was led throughout this section to think about how our educational system will look if we continue to allow machines with a set technique to do the thinking for us? Will we, as teachers, simply push the buttons and apply the techniques already set out for us? I certainly hope not. I don't want to be put on autopilot, nor do I think this will "improve" the educational process. So many times in this section, the author noted how the speed and amounts of information continued to increase, but much of what was/is so easily accessible could not/cannot be connected to any improvement beyond speed and volume. We are the context and meaning providers in the classroom. Our students have information coming at them in great quatities and at great speeds. If we do not teach them how to discern what information is true and meaningful, they will not stop to reflect, and will likely become what the author spoke of in his experiment with a fake story. While I laughed a bit ready this humorous story, it was disheartening to recognize that this happens so often in our society today. Science and studies are "truth" no matter how bizarre or incomprehensible they may seem. I might have to share this story with my kids this coming school year when we talk about discernment in our study of various concepts. What can we be doing in our classrooms to challenge our students to go against the current of our society in this way?
Thanks for the post Lisa. I think we need to just keep encouraging our students to look for truth. Believing the first article that comes on Google isn't necessarily fact!
ReplyDeleteI had the great honour (ahem, read: embarrassment) of finding a great Powerpoint presentation on the 10 plagues to assist in a bible story I had to tell. I looked through he first few slides and thought, "Great! Bible made easy!" Unfortunately when I started my bible story-telling, the slides didn't match up to what I knew as the 10 plagues. I pulled open my Bible again and confirmed that the slides didn't match the story in there! Silly me for assuming that a Powerpoint about the 10 plagues by a Jewish school would be good to use. Good learning for me to review it ALL before proceeding with a lesson. And what an eye-opener that the info out there isn't the information I'm looking for!
ReplyDeleteThe librarian at our school does a lesson at the gr. 4 or 5 level (I believe) of this kind of thing--where she has false websites or websites with false information to teach students how to research and find accurate information. I think this is very valuable! We need to bring back the "why" of technology and the "meaning" back in the information we acquire!
Love this! Thanks for sharing this painfully true story--I think most of us have been there...
DeleteBut how do we teach our students discernment? There is some information out there that seems completely believable. I love your statement that we are the context and meaning providers in our classroom, but discernment is a very difficult skill to teach. I hope that we get really good at doing just that!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my great concerns too, Judy. One website I've used for this is http://www.dhmo.org/. It's worth checking out... :-) It led to some great conversations about "It must be true...I read it on the Internet!"
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