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.
Why Books Are Better Than Screens for Reading Summary: Screens are good for skimming when you need to scan text, search or sift through information, and find content quickly. But books are better than screens for deep reading that requires focusing, recalling, and reflecting upon what you learned. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already … Read more
Scaffolding memory and thought … in the name of love! One Friday, as my wife and I came home after a long work week, she asked me what I felt like doing that evening. We decided to order a pizza, crash on the couch, and watch a movie. Pulling up Netflix, we cued a comedy … Read more
Why are smart device ‘smart’? Perhaps they’re part of an extended mind! Harkening back to my 1980s childhood, I remember, almost nostalgically, the analogue experience of calling my friends on the phone. How different it felt compared to the digital experience today. As a kid, I’d walk over to the landline, pick up the corded … Read more
Distracted driving laws FAQs Those who have followed my writing as of late probably noticed I’ve felt a need to write about the problem of distracted driving, including shortcomings with some distracted driving laws in my state (Minnesota) and other states. For instance, on this site, I’ve written about research on distracted driving and distracted … Read more
Do hands-free devices make roads any safer? Recently, MinnPost (a Minnesota newspaper) published an opt-ed I wrote (“Hands-free cellphone bill won’t stop distracted driving”). In it, I criticized a hands-free law passed in Minnesota, which bans the use of hand-held phones while driving. Evidently, proponents of this law assume that using hands-free devices in the … Read more
How laptops affect learning—and why the medium is the message! Years have passed since media guru Marshall McLuhan declared “the medium is the message.” Nonetheless, his insights about technology remain relevant to this day. In particular, his ideas about media can shed light on an ongoing debate in education. Does using laptops and computers in … Read more
Media ecology, and the rise of celebrity politics Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election was a shock to many—myself included. Afterward, however, I couldn’t help but notice this electoral upset fit an emerging pattern I’ve seen most of my life. As a child of the 1980s, I grew up in the Reagan … Read more
Multitasking skills? There was a job interview I had in the not-too-distant past when the hiring manager asked me a peculiar question: “So, how are your multitasking skills?” Now, as a former student who minored in cognitive science, and as someone who dabbles in mindfulness meditation, I felt tempted to go into a spiel about … Read more
Literacy vs. functional literacy Literacy is usually defined as the ability to read, write, and do math. But what do we mean by reading? People may be able to read the words in a document, but can they grasp its arguments or analogies? How about writing? Students may be able to write or type sentences, … Read more