Tuesday in class I made some remarks about dragging COA and its students into the 21st century. I also used this phrase last Spring in my Differential Equations course. I thought it might be a good exercise for me to say a little bit more about what I mean by this. Perhaps it will be of interest to others, too.
It might be easier to say what I don't mean. I'm not concerned that students keep up with all the latest electronic gadgets. And I certainly don't want to encourage students to unquestioningly accept new technology. I don't think debates about whether or not it's better to read the New York Times online or on paper are very interesting. And I'm not interested in virtual reality, Second Life, computer art, website design, or whether or not instant messaging will destroy this generation's ability to write grammatically.
What I am interested in is the vast amount of new technology that's actually very, very useful. How can this technology -- the myriad "web 2.0" apps and gizmos -- help us do the important and fun work we want to do. This technology isn't an end in and of itself, although it may seem like it. But it's a potentially powerful tool. Which tools are good, and which should be avoided? Moreover, like it or not, much of this new technology is here to stay. Email, the web, wikipedia, social networking, and so on, aren't going anywhere.
We live in a world that is "information rich." Email, blogs, podcasts, online journals and newspapers: there is a dizzying array of information to which we have easy access. A lot of this information comes streaming at us, whether we want it or not. This information is, of course, of wildly varying quality. Lots of it is distracting and irrelevant, and some is pure rubbish. But there's so much good stuff out there, too, that it would self-defeating to turn ones back on the sea of online information.
I worry occasionally that students get strong messages that the internet is never to be trusted, and that real knowledge comes in books or at least printed on paper. Or that electronic media is a little frivolous and library and book research is more serious and scholarly. The result is that sometimes students reflexively turn away from the online world. I want students to turn toward it and embrace it, at least long enough to see what it has to offer. I love books -- my home and office are full of them -- and I love libraries. But if I solely relied on paper resources it would be almost impossible to stay current in my fields. And it would take an enormous amount of paper.
I think it is important to gain skills and learn how to use tools to efficiently sample a lot of the new (and old) knowledge and ideas that are being produced. Even more important is being able to sort, index, store, share, and re-find references and resources that are useful. My experience has been that many COA students (and faculty) are unaware of lots of tools and strategies for working in an information rich environment.
I am hard pressed to think of many jobs/careers/callings which don't require some sort of facility with lots of different forms of (mostly) electronic communication and reading. There will almost surely be some fields or bodies of knowledge that students will need to keep up with: the art scene in Chicago, or politics in Nebraska or Nigeria, or an academic field (usually more than one), or the goings on in one's professional societies or associations, and so on. I want students to have good strategies and techniques for doing so efficiently and smartly. And email can be soul-crushing and time consuming, but it's here to stay. Better get strategies and techniques for dealing with it. Lots of it.
Ultimately, it's not up to me to determine what strategies people adopt to navigate this information-rich world. This will vary lots from person to person. But I do think it's appropriate for me to pester students to think about these issues and gently coerce them to trying some different approaches. In fact, the more I think about it, I worry that I would be remiss if I didn't do so.
These thoughts feel a little incoherent to me. I'd welcome questions and comments. If there is interest, I may follow up this post with a few others concerning some more specific (and practical) thoughts I have about particular strategies for working in information-rich settings.
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1 comment:
Hey Dave,
I believe what you are saying about dragging us to the 21st century is valuable and probably useful to lift us one step ahead. There is no doubt how useful the webs, blogs, e-mails, Wikipedia and other online sources are in contributing to our knowledge. However, I am more concerned about our dependence on electronic gadgets and online sources.
I used to detest using online sources to get answers for some questions not only because I wasn’t familiar with the internet but also because I felt so inferior and dependent. I prefer asking some one even if it means walking ten minutes. But when everyone I asked was telling me to go look it up on Google or Wikipedia, I gave up on the idea. I like asking people because it encourages some "humane" relationships and communication with the people around me, make friends and have some useful conversation. But now, I am one of the major visitors of Wikipedia, Google and other websites. This was exactly what I was trying to runaway from in Singapore.
In Singapore, most people that I see were attached to electronics. You see a thirty-something year old guy playing games on a mini-screened device in the Trains while his girlfriend is lying on his shoulder and desperately seeking his attention. Or a seven year old girl with a fancy and technologically advanced cell phone. This is not to say that everybody was alike. Part of me was admiring with their abilities to cope with the technology and another part was thinking how this was interfering in their personal relationships.
Although I am still hesitant, I believe the 21st century technology has a lot to give and I am ready to learn some of that in this class. It is almost impossible to get up-to-date information without using the internet and some networking websites. I think I am one of the victims of the 21st century technological advancements! Do you feel the same way?
Yiftu
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