Reaction: Will High-tech Kids Still Think Deeply?

Reaction: Will High-tech Kids Still Think Deeply?

Marshall Mcluhan would be very proud of these two authors. It seems as though they have accepted Mcluhan’s challenge for society to evaluate both the positives and negatives associated with the use and development of new technologies. They have, without making specific mention to it evaluated the obsolescence side of Mcluhan’s Laws of Media tetrad (Mcluhan & Mcluhan, 1988). In essence Tarlow and Spangler in the (2001) article entitled “Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply?” have begun to evaluate how the addition of technology has/will/could affect positively and negatively our literacy and thinking skills. The authors chose to look at literacy because they believe; literacy is the one thing, which has proven to have the greatest impact on the way people think. In evaluation the authors are left questioning weather or not the addition of new technologies will in fact make some of what they feel to be fundamental in the development of literacy and thinking skills obsolete.

I agree with the authors and share a fear that the use of technologies may in fact lead us in the wrong direction related to literacy. I am not a reading or literacy expert so I found the information related to how we develop thinking skills during traditional literacy activity very interesting. I can see how the use of technologies that “replace” traditional literacy activities may have a great effect on the way students develop thinking skills not to mention the learning models needed to develop the skills to read and write. Even in the section entitled “Beneficial?” the authors seem to berate the usefulness of technologies in literacy and thinking for all age groups. This all relates to the idea of obsolescence, with the incorporation of new medium and technologies we must question-what do we loose?

Although I feel the authors did a nice job of evaluating the obsolescence side of technology related to literacy. I feel they fell into a pitfall within Mcluhan’s tetrad. They only became conscious of the effects the technology may have, they never really came up with an answer to fix the effects. They only leave the reader with the warning that if we don’t use the tools well and create a new literacy that incorporates all they types of literacy (circular, linear, and multidimensional) then we are hastening the deterioration of our society. Well thanks a lot for that warning but what is the best way to develop this idea of new literacy?

I am left realizing that we as educators have our work cut out for us and that we will need to address the obsolescence factor in relation to many different technologies that have or may come along. I also see the importance of having experts in certain content areas so that we can use their knowledge of the subject matter to help point the positive and negative effects new technologies.

References:

McLuhan, M. & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of media: The new science.

University of Toronto Press.

Tarlow, M., & Spangler, K. L., (2002). Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids

still think deeply? The Education Digest. 67(3), 23-27.