The PBS documentary series, Frontline, recently re-aired a
2010 documentary Digital Nation which
examined the wired world that we are living in. Producer and director, Rachel
Dretzin and correspondent Douglas Rushkoff narrate and guide this documentary
as they explore both the affordances and disaffordances of living in a digital
nation. The filmmakers examine virtual gaming worlds, students in South Korea
becoming digital addicts eventually enrolling in rehab in order to “un-plug”,
debate the topic of multitasking, and examine new trends and critics of
teaching with technology. As such, this documentary covers a wide range of
issues related to technology and concludes on a note that suggests that
technology is not going away, in fact it is rapidly changing, as such the
future of the digital nation is unknown and unpredictable. (No kidding, right?)
Yet, what I found specifically interesting was the documentary’s discussion of
multitasking in relation to education and teaching with technology.
Here are some highlights of the documentary as they relate
to AL881:
Multitasking
Professor of the Social Studies of
Science and Technology at MIT, Dr. Sherry Turkle began the piece that
introduced the contested issue of multitasking by taking the stance that while
it is commonly assumed that multitasking will serve students well, in actuality
multitasking does more harm than good. She makes the strong claim that the
point of education is to have the opportunity to sit and actually think about
something, ponder it if you will, not instantly respond to an email or write a
paper as you are simultaneously creating a presentation for another class. Here,
the filmmakers met with students at MIT and talked with them about their
multiple uses of technology. When the filmmakers interviewed students at MIT, they
responded to Dr. Turkle’s argument claiming that professors need to begin accepting
the fact that students are actually capable of multitasking and that it is a
skill that is necessary to learn in their generation. Yet, the filmmakers note
that there is actually no data to prove these stances on multitasking.
Therefore, to try to answer such a claim, researchers at Stanford
are attempting to study what is really going on in the brain when people,
especially students, multitask. Their research looked at extreme multitask
students (those who constantly multitask with 6 or more items), and from this
research it was suggested that you are actually slower when you multitask. In
fact, those who claim to be excellent multitaskers are actually quiet poor at
multitasking. Another research study
looked at the number of hours kids spend with digital media. This study found
that kids spend more than 50 hours a week with digital media which has an
impact on their brain development because the brain has not yet been fully
developed. And in fact, the impact that technology has upon children’s
development is hard to really measure or explore because technology changes too
fast. One researcher explained that the process to discover something to study,
receive funding, obtain participants, gather data, and analyze results simply
takes so long that by the time the results are compiled the technology has
changed so much that the research is no longer applicable.
Yet some teachers disagree with Dr. Turkle’s stance on
multitasking. Instead, a teacher at a NYC school that carefully incorporates
technology into their curriculum argues that the world has speed up in many
ways due to technology yet education has not. Therefore, educators have a
responsibility to begin speeding up with the times and better prepare our
children to enter the world with the skills that they need. One of these skills
is the ability to effectively multitask.
The film fails to conclude with a distinct assessment of
multitasking as a skill for students and moves instead into the suggested idea
that because of the multititude of distractions students are becoming less and
less academically capable. In fact, Emory English Professor Mark Bauerlein,
suggests that students of today’s generation are actually the “dumbest
generation”. Bauerlein argues that students of this generate is less
academically capable than previous generations because of digital distractions.
He cites NEA studies that suggest as kids get older reading skills get worst.
Further, he cites a study from The
Chronicle of Higher Education, which surveyed college professors and
reported that only 6% of college students enter college adequately prepared to
write. For Bauerlein the digital nation is actually injuring our student’s
intellectual capacities rather than fostering their growth.
While the statistics Bauerlein presents are compelling, I am
left to wonder what was type of writing was considered a value to know before
entering the college classroom. Additionally, I am skeptical to jump on his
wagon because I question if it is the digital nation that is contributing to
student inadequacies or larger more fundamental issues such as lack of
resources and support at lower educational levels to help foster student
writing. What type of writing was the studying valuing? Most likely,
traditional essay formatted writing. Yet, what about students who do not come
from this tradition? Those are issues beyond the digital. Further, if it is an
issue of engagement, the film presents a take on how incorporating the virtual
world in the classroom actually assists with engagement and supports learning
evaluations.
Technology Changes
Student’s Writing Process
After listening to the Bauerlein piece on The Dumbest Generation, I was left a
little heart broken with the films take on technology. Yes, I understand they
must present both the supposed affordances and disaffordances of technology on
students. But Bauerlein seemed as if he just wanted to be provocative. For me,
the title of his book The Dumbest
Generation was the only punch of interest and attention that grabbed me.
Thankfully, the filmmakers selected not to close on such a pessimistic note but
continue the conversation on multitasking and it’s influence on the composing
process. In fact, research has found that because of the multitude of
distractions, research has examined how student’s writing processes have
changed. No longer do students sit down for hours at a time and prepare an
essay. Instead, students are now beginning to compose in paragraphs. They
create one paragraph, then take a break and go on Facebook. Then one other
paragraph and check their email. Doing so, teachers have noted how these
paragraphs fail to connect together and compose one solid thought. Students are
no longer looking at the big picture and only focusing on the small, more
'multitaskable' picture.
Understanding how students composing process is changing
offered a much needed balance to Bauerlein’s dumbest generation comments. It
makes sense that student’s composing would change because the world in which
they compose has changed compared to previous generations. No longer are
students only composing in their classrooms or in their private diaries but the
audience, mode, purpose all have changed. It’s rhetoric baby, and our digital
world is influencing how students (and really everyone) compose in ways that
suit our rhetorical situation.
Should We Use
Technology in the Classroom?
Finally, after offering the counterbalance to Bauerlein, the
filmmakers move into the meat of the documentary that couples the critical
perspectives of education that we briefly read about in AL881. Now, most of the
teachers the filmmakers interviewed were proponents of incorporating technology
into the classroom. In fact some are even beginning to use virtual games to
teach novels and history. One site that a grade school English teacher in NYC
uses is called Ning. It is a social networking site that allows students to
write discussion questions, upload on each others walls, and most importantly
the teacher reports that the students are able to get into the novel and engage
in it. These teachers argue that educators need to begin meeting students in
the worlds that they live in and this includes the virtual world. However,
critics like Todd Oppenheimer say that by incorporating technological
distractions into curriculum actually does a disservice to students. Instead of
teaching students how to do many things at once, we need to teach students how
to focus and concentrate on doing one thing really well (a clear nod to Dr.
Turkle at MIT).
Yet, Oppenheimer and Turkle (even Bauerlein) cannot argue
with the results innovative schools that incorporate technology receive. The
filmmaker’s revealed that failing schools in NYC and New Jersey that were on
the brink of shutting down began to see dramatic increase in their school
retention rate as well as significant improvement on standardized testing.
Clearly, something began to click and turn on once teachers began to meet
students in the digital worlds that they live in. And while teaching with
technology may be distracting, it engages students and invites individual
learning – a goal that I would hope any educator hopes to achieve.
My Reflection on this
Film
Reflecting on the documentary at large, I must admit that
there were many moments where my stomach turned. Some of the comments and
positions made, especially by Todd Oppenheimer seemed dated and simply impractical
to implement in today’s classroom. Critics such as Oppenheimer, Turkle, and
Bauerlein clearly fear the digital age and are attempting to hold on to any
sort of traditional classroom pedagogy that they can cling to when the reality
of a digital nation is continuing to slap them in the face. Clearly this movie
was screened in 2010 and most likely filmed a year or two earlier. Thus, while
positions towards technology and the tools used in the classroom may have
changed radically, issues such as multitasking and engaging with students
continue to exist and be present in pedagogical discussions at all grade
levels.
The film attempts to uncover a wide array of technology use.
Thus, at points while the film presents good counterarguments to stances, only
surface level issues are explored. Therefore, I would be curious to see what
topics and how they would present a documentary focusing solely on technology
in the classroom especially in today’s online educational market where schools
are actually profiting from online courses. Perhaps one is in the works, until
then, we in AL881 are left to ponder at the arguments taken in this film and
the readings in general to evaluate and make our own decision on how to teach
with technology.
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