Reddit.com

Reddit is something I recently discovered and am pretty excited about. Reddit is a social news/discussion/question site with many very specific communities.

In AP physics this year we have been programming to create computer simulations that ideally mimic reality. Programming is powerful because you don’t just discover/measure physics, in you’re little computer created reality, you create it. Even though we are using a very intuitive programming language (Python), it can still be technical/frustrating at times.

Reddit was mentioned to me as a place students could post their programming questions and let more experienced programmers chime in. I wanted to see how it worked so I asked a programming question. Within 24 hours I had two quality responses. I hope the answers will help my students program with less frustration.

Although I’m planning on using Reddit for programming questions, it has all kinds of specific communities from current Israeli news to types of cooking to cognitive science and even an entire section on trees. If your students have specific questions, Reddit seems like the place to go.

Absent… Present! (via Skype)

One of my students has not been feeling well, and a recent test confirmed he had a common illness that will likely result in him missing a lot of school.  Pobrecito.

His friend suggested he might be willing to have us “chat him in”, or digitally enable him to attend class, so I had him get in touch and get us connected.  Another student had brought her laptop from home (can’t wait for the 1-to-1 laptops next year!) and the sick student Skyped in.

We all said “hola” and wished him well, then we got down to business.  We had a quiz to take, after all.  We placed the laptop on a table facing the SmartBoard so he could see and hear what we were talking about.

After a brief, post-weekend refresher on the material, everyone felt ready to take on the dreaded reading comprehension assessment.

I asked the student, who had been able to prep right along with us, if he would like to take the quiz as well, since he was ready.  “Sure,” he said.

I hopped on my laptop, uploaded the quiz as a Google doc, and shared it with him.  “Got it,” we heard him say almost immediately.

As the students turned in their quizzes they all waved to him again on the screen and said hi, and we invited him to stay on while we watched a few videos for the last few minutes of class.  He did.

If he keeps it up, he won’t miss a thing!

Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for EVERYONE

I just came across this video that really makes me feel good about where we’re going with things on our campus. I just had to share.

Wi-Fi Graffiti!

Spanish 1 students weigh in whether our story's main character should take his dad's 1956 T-Bird without permission on Wiffiti.

Have you ever been to a concert or sports event where you were invited to text or Tweet messages to a public screen?

Wiffiti is a company out of Boston whose technology allows anyone, from corporate sponsors to teachers to the average Joe Internet User, to create a public wall for the purpose of gathering text and Tweet “graffiti”.

How is this useful in a classroom setting?

My level 1 Spanish students have been reading a book in which the main character has to make a choice between following his parents’ rules or doing what he wants while they are away.  I wanted the kids to discuss the pros and cons and take a side, in Spanish.

Without technology, this is just a discussion and some kids might tune it out, but when I instructed kids to take out their phones (which most of them had and were thrilled to be asked to use them in class) and had them text their advice to the character, they were on board immediately.  And on the board – literally – immediately!   In seconds, their messages started popping up on the SmartBoard for all to see.

It was fun to see what they wrote, and to see the auto-namer assign them all such funny names, like CinnamonToucan, and SteelSeahorse.

Most of them stuck to the assignment but a few did get carried away with the excitement of being able to communicate something and have everyone see it… without teacher clearance.

Which is EXACTLY why I welcome this type of activity, because it provides an opportunity for teachers to get involved with how students represent themselves online.  Their digital expression of themselves is often private, but when they do this in the classroom, the teacher can moderate the discussion.  Which I did.

“Perdón, who is MintParrot8?”  A boy grins smugly from the back of the room.  I use his post as a negative example, and he quickly sends a new message which follows the assignment.

We’ll continue to build on that success with other projects.  I’ll send an update next time we use it.  Check it out!

My Favorite Blog

If you have a spare second I highly recommend Frank Noschese’s “Action-Reaction” teaching reflections blog. Frank is a prominent high school physics teacher who’s extremely thoughtful posts go far beyond physics. Some of his most interesting reflections involve psydoteaching which he defines as

something you realize you’re doing after you’ve attempted a lesson which from the outset looks like it should result in student learning, but upon further reflection, you realize that the very lesson itself was flawed and involved minimal learning.

His “Khan Academy is an Indictment on Education” post was nominated by Edublog for most influential blog in 2011 and his “$2 interactive whiteboard” won the 2010 award for most influential post from Edublog. Whether you are interested in practical technology application, Khan Academy, or standards based grading his posts will make you think.

book review-educating for the virtues in the 21st century

Howard Gardner has got me thinking! That is what I love most about the book I chose. Gardner gives his personal insights and observations on three important virtues; which he beautifully separates in different chapters: truth, beauty, and goodness. These virtues are not interchangeable…something that Gardner wastes no time pointing out. In the first chapter, he draws intriguing attention to the definitions of truth, beauty, and goodness in such a way that questions the way we think we know them and can identify them in the world. This book is based off of a series of lectures Gardner made in 2008.

Gardner draws attention to the challenges these virtues face in our post-modern world and the potentials of the quickly evolving digital media. For me, he had me doing some self-reflecting. I think anyone who reads this book would be drawn to think and reflect. I don’t know that everyone would agree with his opinions and definitions of the three virtues, but his smooth, fluent and even articulate writing makes it an enjoyable read.

“…our technologically saturated era poses profound challenges to once relatively uncontroversial assertions of what is good, moral, ethical, and what is not. How, in a digital era, do we think about a sense of privacy, the rights of authorship, the trustworthiness of an electronic correspondent whom one cannot look in the eye and who may reappear at any moment under a wholly different guise in a social network or on a blog? What is “goodness” in the virtual reality of Second Life? In multiple-user games like World of War Craft, is it okay to bully and cheat because, after all, such a game is not really real? Are the plausible but unconfirmed rumors that circulate at warp speed on the Internet welcome wake-up calls, spurs to further investigation, or pernicious lies? In our fragmented, polyphonic digital age, the ideal of shared moral standards seems even more elusive.”

Thought provoking, right? The entire book was filled with “moments” for me. It makes me appreciate, actually, the value of e21. Not just in how great it is that we are moving forward into the digital age in a place where we are blessed with the funds and support to get there, but also in a place with people who truly care about the process. There is a lot to think about in this transition, rather evolution.

It is hard to not quote the entire book, but I want to attempt to give a glimpse of each virtue.

Truth:

“the search for truth must become more ‘metacognitive.’ That is, we can no longer just trust our eyes, or the spoken words of the nightly news…there is no substitute for our understanding the ways in which our senses are faithful and the ways in which they deceive…we must try to understand the truths about truth. Not a single truth any more, but a plurality truths, each appropriate to its realm…”

“When it came to truth, I reached a reassuring conclusion. While there is no single truth, various disciplines and professions have allowed us to delineate different spheres of truth, with some confidence; and, overtime should be able to establish truth, and to distinguish it…”

Beauty:
Such a common adjective beauty is…and so subjective. We do not all agree on what is beautiful, or what the term really means. Then again, do we believe in the same truths about it? Can there be any truth about beauty?

Gardner’s approach on beauty was good and thought provoking; however, I would have liked a little more of something. His descriptions were a little narrow. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the direction my mind went.

“Truth and beauty are fundamentally different: Whereas truth is a property of statements, beauty reveals itself in the course of an experience…” Gardner focuses on beauty with art, and naturally so. Many forms of art have been admired and critiqued for hundreds of years. When one artist’s masterpiece is declared beautiful, it may be critiqued overtime quite differently. Gardner distinguishes “traditional beauty on one hand, and an individualized sense of beauty, on the other.”

Goodness:

The final virtue of the fundamental trio is good-“or to be more precise, the Fate of the Concept of the Good in a Postmodern, Digital Era.” Gardner not only writes in a way that keeps me reflecting on concepts, but he is great about sharing how is own mind has shifted, and how his mind has traveled to these conclusions.

What drew my attention to this topic is the fact that we need to think, or perhaps in some cases, re-think our perception or sense of “good”. For example, in the new era of digital communities, identities, resources, and possibilities—we need to think of ways to hold on to our sense of good in a way to maintain its relevance and need in the postmodern era. How can we all agree though or at least communicate on what good is anymore?

Gardner appropriately quotes the golden rules of the era in which we’ve developed our sense of truth, beauty, and goodness…such as “Do unto others…”. He explores many ways of seeing or doing “good”, but how will we educate this for the 21st Century?

To get there, atleast speaking in my own connection to Heritage Hall, I would say we do just what we have begun. I think we have done a great job finding people who care about the future and appreciate the opportunities we have to get there…who will in turn continue to research and reflect on how we are preparing our students has 21st century learners, and our teachers as 21st century teachers. How are we going to facilitate teaching and learning in such a way that when they leave Heritage Hall, they will have the skills they need for being good citizens, marketable, and employable in a world of jobs that may not have been developed yet. Moreover, how can we move forward with the “times” and technology without fast-forwarding passed precious virtues like the three in which Gardner emphasized.

I like how Gardner titled his book: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the virtues in the twenty-first century. He didn’t say change them, pick new ones, only to reframe it—like altering picture frames in your house to go with new paint color…doesn’t change the value of the photo, it allows it to fit better in its environment. We are to be educating for the virtues so that we can best use our environment and our technology for the best interest of our students.

Book report – 21st Century Skills Learning For Life In Our Times

After looking at several choices for books to read on this subject, I selected Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel’s book in digital format. I had hoped to find a book that provided a great overview of the topic as well as practical suggestions. This book did not disappoint. The prologue sets the tone with the title, “The Search for Innovative Learning,” that took us to Napa New Tech High School. They are famous for their project approach to learning. It was a fascinating glimpse into one school’s mission to keep the spirit of innovation and invention alive. My favorite focus word for the book also appears- balance.
The introduction to the book makes the case that the world has changed so much in the last few decades that learning and education have also changed. The authors then present a four question exercise that challenges the reader to explore past successes and future possibilities. The answers fuel the nine chapters of the book as they present a handy guidebook for the topic.
I liked the past and future comparisons that focused on the shift from the Industrial Age to the “Knowledge Age.” The statistic that stood out was that with new skills, the job shift will mean that people between the age of 18-42 will have 11 different jobs. It presents a powerful case for the shift from “brawn to brain” while retaining critical values and traditions. The key concept is again balance and learning balance.
Part Two outlines 21st Century skills that reminded me of traditional fundamental ideas with the addition of media literacy and applying technology effectively. The career and life skills section hit home with concepts that I would like to see my students master- initiative and self direction, accountability, and leadership.
Part Three puts the learning into practice with an in depth discussion of project and design based learning. There was a brief discussion of obstacles. Since the emphasis was very positive and directed, I think the obstacles were mentioned primarily in passing.
The creation of a productive, prepared student is a goal that educators have had for years. This book presented a new look at the challenges and the shift of ideas and tools that our students will face in the coming years.
The resources at the end of the book were very well organized. Section A was by chapter, section B was Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and section C was a summary of skill sets. The book was infused with diagrams and charts for those of us who like the visual as well as the text.
For those who are looking for a great overview of the topic with thought provoking ideas, I can highly recommend this book.

Collaboration: The New Groupthink?

On Sunday I stumbled upon an article in the opinion pages of the NYT titled The Rise of the New Groupthink.  I had been working on a blog post about Solution Fluency which went into an exploration of different personalities as they operate in problem-solving situations.  I had concluded that if people can recognize and put to use the best strength for the given situation, a group may produce a better result than an individual, toiling alone, might do.

Not so according to the article… or would author Susan Cain actually agree with the Myers Briggs concept that people operating out of different values and preferences might produce a good result when working together, if those differences are understood and are operating at their best?  Certainly a group of people operating at their worst will produce a negative result in any situation.

Susan Cain argues that introverts like Steve Wozniak need to work independently, and if Woz were forced to collaborate in constant brainstorming groups, he would never have had the opportunity to make the magic of the personal computer happen.  She does grant that without the “supernatural magnetism” of Steve Jobs, he might have given his invention away for free, or that he might never have gotten started on the project if not for a bunch of like-minded buddies getting together and outlining the parameters.

Though Cain, author of the forthcoming book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” seems to be speaking out against collaboration, she is operating out of a limited idea as to what collaboration is or can be.  She cites the example of a 4th grade classroom she visited in New York City where: “students engaged in group work were forbidden to ask a question unless every member of the group had the very same question.”

What?  Either this example was taken out of context, or the teacher she observed could probably use a bit more guidance on different learning styles.  This technique might force the extroverts to think and consult their peers before they ask a question their group-mates can answer, but at its worst it would certainly produce what commenter ljn of New Jersey described on Jan. 15th at 12:49pm:

 “…I was recalling that in elementary school in the 1970s, my teacher would ask who wanted to work in groups and who wanted to work by themselves. Usually I was the lone hand raised that preferred to work “solo”. But since most kids wanted to work in groups, that is what we did; often with mediocre results. Decades later, I know that my best work as a scientist has arisen from my own ideas and observations. Unfortunately, those of us who prefer to pursue our own approach are often labled as ‘not a team player’.” 

Certainly young ljn would have had valuable contributions to make, but the self-professed introvert was, for some reason, not comfortable with the face-to-face, dialogue-oriented interaction her teacher prescribed.  This commenter’s chosen career in science makes me think he or she might be an S (sensing) type of problem solver: fact-oriented, considerate of the components that have produced the situation, interested in researching the cause-and-effect aspect.

ljn might also be an F (feeling) type: attuned to the feelings of his or her peers, which might have caused internal conflict at a young age when he or she might have felt different from the other members of the group because of his or her unique vantage point.  Sensitive to all of this, and more comfortable processing information in his or her own mind rather than out loud, it is understandable that this person did not like the structure of group work in school.

But does ljn‘s experience mean, as author Cain’s article suggests, that collaboration will turn us into a mediocre society?

In a word: no.  I have seen collaboration in action in an all-boys private school in the Northeast, where 5th graders build presentations on shared Google docs about topics such as ancient Egypt.  They are abuzz with excitement, sprawled out in the hall, editing the presentation, adding cool pictures and details while their teacher Tweets homework assignments with interesting bonus facts and images of Egyptian relics, fact-of-the-day style.

Some of the boys take responsibility for editing the text of the presentation, some are better at formatting the slides, some are writing Google queries with great imagination, which bring results that send the boys into fits of giggles, awed silence, and even quiet contemplation as they ramble around the internet in search of appropriate details.

They feel like they’re playing, but they are producing impressive results.  When less-than-impressive, the teacher critiques the work according to a well-defined rubric and shows them exactly how to improve.

They all know how to do each step, sometimes they work together, sometimes alone… and yet still together, as they each have access to the most immediate version of the project through their assigned laptop.

Are they dumbing each other down?  Hardly!  They are in competition for the coolest fact, the best formatting, the least number of spelling errors on the text, the most interesting picture…  Why?  Because who doesn’t want to be the best at something?  And if the ability to find your own niche and be the best in the way that makes the most sense to you is in your hands, you’re going to find it, even if you are 10 years old and working on a project for school, even if you don’t care about grades or school or Egypt, you’ll still want to know that you are the best at something.

Even better, you get to be competitive from the privacy of your own little hideaway under a table, down the hall, in the corner of the room, or wherever your best little working nook might be.

I wonder if ljn might have been happier with a collaborative project in a classroom like that ?

If all of this “type” classification intrigues you, visit the Myers Briggs website or pick up a copy of Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type, by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron.  The career book takes each of the 16 different personality types and forecasts, based on decades of research, careers that are typically satisfying to particular types.  According to this book,  ljn would likely be an ISFP (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving), who would enjoy — you guessed it — a career in science.

What are you?  What am I?  And why does all of this matter?

As we prepare our school to go boldly where many are tending to go… and discovering incredible opportunities and also pitfalls along the way… we must consider how we will instruct our various learners to help them to achieve 21st Century skills like the ability to collaborate.

Resources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

Tieger, Paul D., and Barron, Barbara.  Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2007.

 

Solution Fluency: to thine own problem-solving self be true

In November, kinder21 presented the concept of “Solution Fluency” to our group and discussed a simple problem faced by a group of her Kindergartners. They were outside for recess playing basketball and the ball became wedged between the rim and the backboard.

The kids tried a bunch of unsuccessful solutions to get it down, which included (memorably) shouting at it, before someone finally tossed another ball at the stuck ball and hit it, which knocked it down.

kinder21 explained the “6 D’s” of Solution Fluency, and the process the kids had unwittingly gone through before finally hitting upon the one that worked.

It got me thinking: how do you get students — or anyone for that matter — to consider and follow those 6 steps every time they are faced with a problem? Do I do that? Could I hold myself to that standard? I visited the 21st Century Fluency Project’s site for a closer read of the D’s:

Define the problem, because you need to know exactly what you’re doing before you start doing anything.
Discover the history of the problem which provides context.
Dream Envision a future with the problem solved.
Design your solution in stages through gap analysis from Define to Dream.
Deliver the goods. Complete and publish your solution.
Debrief and foster ownership, by getting involved in the evaluation of the problem-solving process.

It seemed pretty reasonable, but somehow I couldn’t see myself printing the D’s out and hanging them on my classroom wall as a guide for my students to follow.

I thought about my own problem-solving process and compared it to the D’s, and realized I was more drawn to some of the stages than others.  If I had to follow the 6 D’s sequentially… well… I just would not necessarily do so every time, and my solution might suffer for it.

But they seem so sensible, what was my problem with the D’s? I read the description again and saw this preamble:

“This is about whole-brain thinking – creativity and problem solving applied in real time.”

Eureka! The key word for me was “whole-brain” thinking. It reminded me of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test I took in college.  My mom is pretty well-versed in this area and had some good resources, so I investigated further.

You can read up on Myers Briggs, or just check out the chart below and think: where do my thoughts tend to go when I am faced with a problem that needs solving?

Is there one (or more) which seem too cerebral, too ethereal, too impulsive, or perhaps too inefficient? You will most likely be drawn to two of the quadrants (one top, one bottom).

Which quadrants represent for you the most comfortable way to begin the process of problem solving?

S: DEFINE THE PROBLEM ·  Face all the facts ·  See the situation as it is. ·  Be realistic and avoid wishful thinking or feeling that may distort the picture ·  What do we know for sure? ·  Who is involved? ·  What has gone before?	N: CONSIDER ALL THE POSSIBILITIES ·  List possible courses of action ·  Put these into words and make conscious ·  Develop a range of alternatives without analyzing or critiquing. ·  Don’t reject anything yet, keep brainstorming. ·  What solutions “leap out”
T: WEIGH THE CONSEQUENCES of each course of action · What steps do you take to get there? · What will happen if you do? · List steps for each course of action · Make an impersonal analysis of cause/effect · Make a tentative judgment about what will give the best result	F: WEIGH ALTERNATIVES in terms of feeling. · How deeply do you care about the things that will be gained or lost. · How will this effect others? · Impact on people · Impact on values and sensibilities? · Acknowledge subjective elements

Source: Myers, Isabel B., McCaulley, Mary H., Quenk, Naomi L., Hammer, Allen L. MBTI Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Consulting Psychologists Press, 3rd Edition, 1998.

Personally, I tend to operate out of the right-hand side of the box, so if I am approaching a problem I am thinking about the feelings of those involved, what obvious possibilities are “leaping out”, and I will begin to generate a list of ideas by brainstorming.

Someone who operates out of either of the quadrants on the left might not understand why I might approach it that way, and might see it as inefficient, but for me considering the effect on others and the having opportunity to creatively discover a solution appeals to my values and preferences.

I never would have considered a career in finance because of the type of thinking required. It’s not my strength! However, put me in a classroom with a group of learners who have a variety of strengths, needs and aspirations and ask me to give them skills in, and an appreciation for, world languages and culture and you’ve got the right girl.

We all have our own sets of values and preferences that might lead us down one path or another when faced with a complex problem to solve, and each type of person can make helpful contributions to the problem-solving process.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills designates Problem Solving as one of 6 essential, and currently not assessed, skills for students to learn, and describes it thus:

“…Solving complex, multidisciplinary, open-ended problems that all workers, in every kind of workplace, encounter routinely.The challenges workers face don’t come in a multiple-choice format and typically don’t have a single right answer. Nor can they be neatly categorized as “math problems,” for example, or passed off to someone at a higher pay grade.

Businesses expect employees at all levels to identify problems, think through solutions and alternatives, and explore new options if their approaches don’t pan out. Often, this work involves groups of people with different knowledge and skills who, collectively, add value to their organizations.”

If we imagine the Kindergartners with the stuck ball as representing a group of four distinct problem-solving “types” — S (sensing), N (intuition), T (thinking), and F (feeling) — working together to solve the problem, the conversation might have looked something like this:

Finn (F): Oh no! Johnny’s crying!
Samantha (S) : His ball is stuck!
Finn: We need to get it down!
Nick (N): Maybe we could parachute off the top of the school and kick it out as we fly by the net?
Tricia (T): No, that won’t work. We don’t have parachutes and we might get in trouble.
Finn: Johnny will be so upset if we can’t get it down, he got that ball for his birthday!
Samantha: Let’s see, what can we do?
Nick: How about we yell at it REALLY loud? Maybe we’ll scare it down!
Tricia: That didn’t work. Any more big ideas?
Finn: That was kind of mean Tricia.  Maybe we should get the teacher?
Samantha: Tricia, don’t criticize. Finn, go get the teacher.
Tricia: Sorry Nick. Maybe you could think of something that knocks the ball down without using things we don’t have, and without imagining that the ball has feelings.
Nick: Maybe a bird could hit it… I’ve got it! Maybe we could hit it with something?
Tricia: That’s more like it, but how could we hit it if we’re down here and it’s up there?
Samantha: (picks up a ball)
Nick: How about another ball? We could throw it!
Tricia: That’s quite logical actually, I think it could work!
Samantha: (aims ball at stuck ball)
Nick: Maybe if you stand with your back to it and throw it over your head…
Tricia: A simple, forward-facing shot will work, let’s just get it down.
Finn: Yay! It worked! You did it!
Samantha: I’m going to go bring it to Johnny.
Nick: That was cool! I really think we should try parachuting off the roof though…
Tricia: Great shot, Samantha.
Finn: GREAT shot Samantha! Johnny will be so happy!

In the conversation above, any of the kids might DEFINE the problem (the ball is stuck), though defining a problem is usually the realm of the fact-oriented S.

Certainly the feeling-oriented F would recognize the importance of solving the problem, and would generate the sense of urgency that would press the S into problem-solving action, rather than simply abandoning the ball and finding a new one to play with.

The fact-oriented S would give context to the problem (DISCOVER) that would help the others to break the problem down into manageable parts.

The N would begin generating possibilities (DREAM and DESIGN), some of them improbable, and the T would analyze and critique, thereby influencing the DESIGN.

The S would put the design to use (DELIVER), the T would analyze the results (DEBRIEF), and the F would celebrate the results (DEBRIEF).

What I am getting at is that we all do have the capacity to do all 6 of the D’s, and students would certainly benefit from some outright training in problem solving, but they will choose to use the D’s that make sense to them. “Dreaming” of a solution might sound hokey to some, while “Design a solution through gap-stage analysis” might sound overwhelming to others.

For me, Solution Fluency is about knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and recognizing the strengths in your teammates that fill in where yours leave off. For simple problems it is important to be able to work independently, but for the complex it is equally important to be able to work together.

RESOURCES:
http://www.fluency21.com/fluencies.cfm
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_education_and_competitiveness_guide.pdf
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

Myers, Isabel B., McCaulley, Mary H., Quenk, Naomi L., Hammer, Allen L. MBTI Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Consulting Psychologists Press, 3rd Edition, 1998.

Hamlet’s Blackberry–Part two

William Powers in his book Hamlet’s Blackberry continues moving forward through time to give examples of how people have been challenged by technology and how their challenges can provide thoughtful questions for us today as we consider how technology will impact our lives.  Last time I mentioned Plato, Seneca, Gutenberg, and Hamlet. Now we move forward with Ben Franklin,  Henry Thoreau, and Marshall McLuhan.

Ben Franklin was a very self reflexive guy, recording a list of virtues he wanted to adopt in his life and painstakingly detailing how he would go about becoming a better person. Using this example, McLuhan adopts Franklin’s practice and discusses how with every new technological device, there are three issues that need to be considered:

1. Functional (What are its best uses? What can this device do for us?)

2. Behavioral (What behaviors do I need to change or acquire in response to this?

3. Inner Human Dimension (How is this device affecting me and my experience? Is it altering how I think and feel? What are the effects on my day, my pace, my work, my home life?)

Although not tied directly to a particular new technology as the other earlier examples from the book were, these questions are important for us to consider as we move forward with our students. Simply using technology because its there, isn’t the point. We need to be just as thoughtful in how we adopt technology into the classroom as we would any other tool we might use. But these questions also are ones we should be asking ourselves as our lives become more awash in technology so that we are able to serve as positive role models for our students who are more and more at risk of being “addicted” to technology or misusing it.

In the 1800s railroads and telegraphs were the new technology that Thoreau and his contemporaries had to negotiate with. A quote of the time describing the telegraph could just as well describe the texting, twittering nation of today (minus the wires): “A slender wire has become the highway of thought. Messages follow each other in quick succession.” While Thoreau had Walden to escape to, Powers argues that in today’s digital society, there’s no where to go to truly escape as long as we still have a screen, be it a smartphone, iPad, laptop or tv. Two costs Powers says we are paying because of this is extreme busyness and loss of depth.

Marshall McLuhan, a philosopher who coined the terms “the global village” and “the medium is the message” would argue that if you feel overwhelmed by technology, you can take control by living more consciously (much like Franklin).  In 1962 McLuhan wrote The Gutenberg Galaxy in which he argues that the tools and technologies we use are actually extensions of our bodies. Before this book, people considered the message itself as the thing that mattered, not the medium in which it was delivered. But McLuhan demonstrates that when a truly big technological development comes along (such as the printing press), “the change is so dramatic that it produces a new kind of human being.” The question that Powers wants us to explore, a question that both Franklin and Thoreau would have echoed, is

“What kind of human being am I becoming in light of the new technologies I’m encountering?”

Click here for a Prezi version of the info in Powers’ Hamlet’s Blackberry.