Fight, Flight, or Adapt
When I was a child, perhaps in my last year at primary school, I remember my mother imploring the teacher not to allow me access to a calculator. Her fear was that a calculator would render me numerically impaired leaving me unable to manage mental maths. I don’t think my mother’s approach was atypical which viewed technology with suspicion; short-cuts never facilitate deep understanding, which can only be secured through learning about things and applying knowledge through the exercise of the mind. This might be seen as ‘fighting’ new-fangled ideas in favour of an educational model from yesteryear. One thinks of the BBC sitcom Yes Minister which sent up the notion that an Oxford degree in ‘Greats’ was sufficient alone to qualify as a high-ranking civil servant.
A different approach by parents and teachers is to try and limit the exposure children have to technology albeit in a more neutral way, possibly because it isn’t immediately obvious to them how software might be used to enhance learning. This is more of a compartmentalised approach where IT is viewed as a discrete discipline relating to the acquisition of certain skills. I must admit that as a history teacher I do have some sympathy with this point of view. The ‘red meat’ of history is debate and the discussion of ideas. The intellectual world, taking this idea to its logical conclusion, is worth taking seriously and gadgets, though attractive at first sight, are no replacement for human discourse. ‘Flying’ from technology is less driven by hostility and more about preserving the integrity of academic disciplines.
The final option in our technological triptych is to try to find a via media between traditional and more contemporary models of education. There is no doubt, in my mind at least, that children must be taught facts – linguistic, mathematical, cultural – and that there is merit in them committing things to memory. In recent years we have witnessed so many problems in historical analysis resulting from people not knowing the facts (or choosing to ignore them!) Having said that, the pendulum can swing too far in the other direction and I remember only too well that in preparation for my first university supervision, on Rostowian economic theory (!), I was landed with a reading list of ten fat tomes and told to plough through them. I never want to see a Floud and McCloskey textbook again! The serious point is that I ended up suffering from cognitive overload. Too much information and no understanding how to make sense of it had left me inert and exhausted.
There is a balance to be struck, of course. I think a good starting point is to reiterate the first principles of education. This should mean wanting to foster amongst children a passion for learning, a journey filled with imagination and questions, and a desire to solve problems. The engagement of young minds is bound to lead to them performing better in exams and at interview. Technology, especially the world of Virtual Reality, can provide the fuel for that journey offering an ‘immersive experience’ that is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Navigating the road between the old and new ways of learning is a challenge educators must face and with no little humility because none of us have ready answers. A commitment to intellectual and moral imperatives will be our lights to guide our way.
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