Blog #3 Digital Nation

Blog # 3 - Digital Nation:

Prompt for the video, Digital Nation:

a) In what way (s) does Digital Nation depict digital technology as beneficial to teaching and learning?

b) In what way (s) does Digital Nation depict digital technology as detrimental to teaching and learning?

(For both of the above questions, cite or refer to, a specific example or examples to support your conclusions.)

c) What are your overall conclusions regarding digital technology and its impact on teaching and learning?

The segments I found most interesting and relevant are the following:

a) Distracted by Everything, b) What's It Doing to Their Brains, c) Teaching with Technology, d) Relationships, and e) Where Are We Headed.

a) While there are many ways that Technology is beneficial to teaching and learning, I will focus on two. Using a Word Processor greatly improves the likelihood that students will revise and improve their writing, and to me, drafting is the key to good writing. I also believe the Internet had a more positive than negative impact on teaching and learning because having the library come to students rather than having them physically have to go to the library has tremendously improved students use of references and sourcing.

 b) The way that technology is most detrimental to teaching and learning to me is best summarized by what MIT Professor Sherry Turkle said. "There really are important things you cannot think about unless it is still and you are only thinking about one thing at a time.  There are just some things that are not amenable being though about in conjunction with 15 other things.

Turkle has really hit on something here. While it is possible in certain circumstances to juggle multiple items, each demanding partial attention, teaching and learning do not fall into that category. A price is paid and I believe the greatest price is that students today do not frequently engage in deep thought. As several other professors noted, multitasking leads to being easily distracted, disorganized memory, poor analytical thinking, and in general less and less creative thinking.

c) As always seems the case, with the good comes the bad. While digital technology often brings us instant and worldwide access, it also has the potential to turn our brains into mush. Since many organisms (humans included) focus on the short term and instant gratification, we are also being deprived of many of the more important things in life which require deep thinking, postponement of gratification in pursuit of more loft goals (a degree, a successful marriage and/or relationships). Technology without self discipline often is a greater detriment than benefit. However, if one has the discipline to control one's urges, technology will be a every effective tool that tremendously benefits teaching and learning.