Kids Used To Love Textbooks (Digital Learning, Part 1)
Kids of yesteryear used to LOVE textbooks. But, according to Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, LA, today’s kids hate them. In this New York Times article, she is quoted as saying, “Kids are wired differently these days. They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite. They don’t engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote.” It’s amazing how, in just a few years, everything has changed!
I’m sure readers who grew up before the internet was ubiquitous have similar fond memories as mine. I remember getting up early on a Saturday morning, even before my parents were awake, just so I could read my school textbooks. I remember when, in second grade, my backpack broke because I was always carrying my textbooks with me. I just loved them so much! Even in college, when my friends called me lame, I didn’t care; I wanted to sleep with my textbooks, not women. That’s how it used to be for all kids, so mark textbooks down as yet another thing that the internet has ruined.
Today’s kids don’t want to read books. They want to get their learning from the same places they get their other information: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and random websites. Dr. Abshire puts it best: “Teachers need digital resources to find those documents, those blogs, those wikis that get them beyond the plain vanilla curriculum in the textbooks.” Exactly! Previous generations of teachers used to handout the textbooks, sit at their desks while children read quietly, then give a test at the end of the day on the information from the book. Today’s teachers have to do it completely differently. They have to hand out laptops so that children can read blogs and wikis, take computers to the technician when kids drop them on the floor, then give a test at the end of the day. It’s a total sea-change!
Why should teachers teach when there are digital textbooks and pricey laptops for every student? Why should learning be constricted to the expertise of the teacher when children can get their own information from the internet? If there is one thing wrong with the American education system, it’s that we don’t let kids figure out on their own what’s true and what isn’t. Why teach about WWII when there are websites that deny many key facts about it? Why teach about Al Qaeda and 9/11 when the whole thing was caused by the US government? And why teach about the moon landing when some kids may find information exposing it as a hoax? Furthermore, Bigfoot is real when you learn from the internet; but textbooks barely spend any time on this vital issue.
More insights from California’s governor: “And given that students already get so much information from the Internet, iPods and Twitter feeds, he said, digital texts could save them from lugging around ‘antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks.’” Yes! Children can’t stop getting information from the Twitter and the iPods. This is so true that it’s actually concerning. Children could be turned into a brainwashed army of drones if someone could figure out how to hack Twitter and iPods. Maybe digital textbooks aren’t such a good idea after all.
Who are these people who continually foresee complete change because of current technologies? Did you watch film strips in school? I am willing to bet that they became popular when educators were told that it was the only way kids could learn. What about television programs? My guess is that they became common when educators were told that kids only learn from television. Never mind the fact that research demonstrates the efficacy of a skillful teacher, above and beyond any particular media. Blogs, wikis, and any other tech buzzwords you want to use are just the next in a line of technologies that educators will latch onto in an attempt to keep up with this ever-changing world. Meanwhile, where do I get information from? Published scholarly articles. If kids get used to using websites for reliable information, they’ll be rather surprised that websites don’t count for much when you get to higher learning.
Stay tuned: tomorrow, I’ll write about proper use of digital media in the classroom.
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