Ruminations on our relationship with technology
“Technology education aims at students’ learning about what technology helps us to do and what it hinders us from doing; it is about how technology uses us, for good or ill, and about how it has used people in the past, for good or ill. It is about how technology creates new worlds, for good or ill.”
– Neil Postman, The End of Education, p 191-192.
Educational topics look at how technologies shape the way we think or process information. Granted, “technology” is a broad term. For instance, it may refer to tools, machines, or media. Likewise, “mind” doesn’t refer to one thing. Rather, it implies a bundle of mental functions or processes (a.k.a. ‘modules’), which give rise to varied perceptions and thoughts.
So, one way to understand how technologies affect our minds is to ask: What types of tools, machines, or media work best for what kinds of thinking? Educational topics that may help answer this question include media ecology, cognitive science (including artificial intelligence, or AI), and functional literacy. To explore ideas from these topics, select any of the articles below.
Yes, bots can imitate language – but no, they don’t understand what they’re saying Every technological revolution seems to bring its own hype, and the boom of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is no exception. There’s no shortage of hype, for instance, about large language models (LLMs), the technology behind chatbots and voice assistants. This technology … Read more
VR schools: the future of education? If you’re a parent, teacher, or student, you may have noticed that the implementation of virtual reality (VR) in schools has gained ground lately. In fact, there are now VR schools in elementary education that are entirely online. For many people concerned about the future of education and literacy, … Read more
Is generative AI going through a hype cycle? Technological innovation often goes through what’s called a hype cycle. Represented graphically, there’s a peak of inflated expectations about some supposedly revolutionary technology, followed by a trough of disillusionment. Then, there’s a gradual slope of enlightenment, or understanding what the technology realistically can and can’t do. Finally, … Read more
Why do social media amplify outrage and division? One of the reasons I don’t sign up for most social networking sites is that they seem to bring out the worst in us. Nowadays, there’s never a shortage of angry outbursts on social media. In fact, Nature Human Behavior, a cognitive and behavioral science journal, recently … Read more
Are AI chatbots examples of general intelligence or cognitive automation? As artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT become famous, I can’t help but notice how a perpetual topic of debate about AI continues to reemerge. Are these chatbots examples of general intelligence or cognitive automation? To understand this debate, let’s briefly define what we mean … Read more
The media ecology of how social media changed communication One of the key insights of media ecology is that when we add a new technology to our culture, we don’t just have the same culture plus the new technology. Rather, the technology changes the culture. In other words, technological innovation can change our whole way … Read more
What’s the difference between technology training vs. technology education? Let’s talk about the difference between technology training vs. technology education. To illustrate this distinction, imagine you’re with a group of handymen. However, the only tools they have are a bunch of hammers. Unfortunately, you have a pile of screws, not nails, that need to be … Read more
What is the digital divide? Summary: The state of education following the COVID pandemic helped illustrate why we can’t bridge the digital divide simply by giving every student a laptop or tablet. To bridge the digital divide, we’ll require serious social investments as well. For instance, we’ll need to invest in infrastructure for local communities, … Read more
Are e-books or e-readers good technologies for reading? Summary: There are key differences between screen media and print media, and these differences make books better than screens for reading, especially deep reading. But what about e-books? Are e-readers good technologies for reading too? Interestingly, although they’re technically screens, e-readers have features that imitate books. Consequently, … Read more