Technological Spinal Damage

Why should technology be integrated into social studies classrooms? How has the learning from our first session influenced your answer? Please support your views with content from the readings.

The internet is an amazing resource for teachers because of the sheer volume and access to resources it provides. No matter your discipline within the umbrella of social studies, there will be additional resources for you to choose from. And your students will likely also benefit from the learning opportunities presented by access to a vast number of resources.

And it appears students are more interested in utilizing these new technologies to express themselves than they ever were for taking notes or reading textbooks. Their enthusiasm for this new technology suggests that both teachers and students will benefit extremely from integrating technology into the social studies classroom.

But as substantial as these new resources are, I wonder if there were similar feelings whenever a new piece of technology is introduced into the classroom. Teachers having access to videos to show what they could only merely describe before. Students using offline computers to learn in a new way and to express themselves through typed words. Both of these technologies likely had similar (although maybe less substantial) effects on how teachers and students existed in the classroom. And while we can clearly understand the benefits teachers and students gain from the access to additional interesting, relevant course materials, it seems a little harder to understand why students are so interested in expressing themselves in this new manner.

I personally believe that adolescents are much more prone to utilizing these technologies than other age groups. The adolescent psychology concept of “imaginary audience,” where students feel that “they are always on stage and that everyone around them is as aware of, and concerned about their appearance and behavior as they are themselves.” (quote coming from the Instructional Strategies book used in ESE 6345, page 5) The ability of technology to seamlessly connect people together must be appealing to adolescents on this level. Uploading a podcast or blog post that is, theoretically, available to anybody in the world must be quite the thrill. And November’s book provides many examples of students or groups of students whose work has been noticed on a larger scale than the individual classroom. I would say I received a similar thrill to being exposed to these technologies because I loved the idea that everything could be connected to everything else. I love the fact that people could be connected to my work (and I to theirs) and that disparate threads could be easily integrated together. After week one of class, I felt positively giddy about becoming more technologically literate and I dove in headfirst.

Many students encountering these technologies probably have the desire to dive in head first. Unfortunately, that desire could lead to technological spinal damage. Attempting to use the Internet as a resource without proper web literacy is bound to hamper learning. November expresses this fear when he paraphrases Marshall McLuhan, “The real danger is that is that a majority of students will lack the critical-thinking skills necessary to separate the message from the medium.” (Page 80) Students need to be taught web literacy to make the Internet into a safe source for learning and expression.

Web literacy does not come easily. I have always considered myself well-versed in technology, but I did not know exactly how search engines generated their results or how to completely read domain names. At the same time technology is compelling and interesting, it is daunting, an obstacle to overcome. This is the real value of November’s book to me. It really is providing “Web Literacy for Educators.” And once we can become fluent in web literacy, we can transfer these skills to our students and truly unlock the amazing potential of the internet.