In a New York Times op-ed piece this past fall, Frank Bruni addressed the growing chorus of college critics - those echo-chambering the belief that college costs too much and is out of touch with the needs of the business community. Or, as a Salon headline of a Robert Reich article read, “College is a ludicrous waste of money.”
Bruni disagrees - and has big(ish) data on his side. But what bothers him most is the way in which this cacophonous, mostly college-bashing debate tends to sidestep the deeper value of attending college.
“As we pepper students with contradictory information and competing philosophies about college’s role as an on ramp to professional glory,” Bruni writes, “we should talk as much about the way college can establish patterns of reading, thinking, and interacting that buck the current tendency among Americans to tuck themselves into enclaves of confederates with the same politics, the same cultural tastes, the same incomes.”
What does this have to do with technology? Those problematic “enclaves of confederates” are shaped in large part by technology. As the Pew Research Center reports, the Internet “is contributing to the polarization of America, as people surround themselves with people who think like them and hesitate to say anything different.” In his 2011 book, The Filter Bubble, Eli Pariser, cofounder of Upworthy, makes it clear that the algorithmic Google searches tend to push us deeper into this mirror-land.
When it comes to the role of technology in schools, I understand how educators will examine ways technology can amplify the work of great teachers. I understand why it’s necessary to engage students with the tools they will certainly need to use skillfully in college and beyond. I understand that many students, from the early ages on, use technology in remarkable ways - to make things, be creative, solve problems that deeply interest them, learn independently, even help save the world in small and large ways. I understand the value of blended learning courses, especially when they connect students around the world. But I’m also grateful to those educators, maintaining a holistic view of children and learning, who ask us to pay attention to technology’s perils as well as its promises. Unchecked, technology can damage children’s social interaction, can ironically shut down learning, cut off dialogue, isolate and confuse children and adolescents. In other words, I admire those who come to the conversation on educational technology with pockets full of questions, who ask that we put aside time to talk with each other unwired, read books, explore nature, practice mindfulness. I appreciate it when Sal Khan says (in an interview on page 42), “I’d prefer my children to be with an amazing teacher-mentor-coach and no other supplies than to be alone with the most state-of-the-art technology.”
So, on my Wi-Fi-ready laptop in a local coffee shop, surrounded by students and adults staring at their screens, I write: Let the conversation continue.