justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

Technology and Education

From time to time, I stop and ponder the question, “What is the impact of technology on human evolution and education?” This is especially true as I’m continually touched by a bit of spray from the tsunami of technological changes (excuse my lyrical license) that makes up my everyday life: teaching others to do something new, or different. 

As I am well into my seventh decade of teaching and learning, I often wonder what my grandchildren will draw upon that’s equal to what I experienced at a similar age. My formal education for example, started when our country had just entered World War II. That’s before the age of a television in our living rooms, and even before a majority of homes had refrigerators. Most had ice literally delivered to their homes for their iceboxes.

I remember clearly when the first Bird’s Eye frozen dinner was offered at a local supermarket, and the lines out the door with folks wanting to buy this latest convenience. I’m not saying the frozen dinner was the technological marvel; there were only a few homes with freezers until I was around 8 or 9 years old.

Having two cars was extremely rare. For quite awhile, standard equipment on those cars were a 3-speed “stick” transmission and tires with tubes. There were no recording devices to speak of, only 78-rpm records (really fast and with only one song on each side). If you had a good enough antenna, you might watch one of only three television networks. Radio stations broadcast in AM only.

Yet it still seemed so incredible at the time. I was fascinated by the wonder and magic of a crystal radio, constructed from 50 cents worth of parts by this preteen. And to be able to listen to the AM radio through a cheap earphone – magic!

What will my grandchildren recall when looking back, as I have, starting in kindergarten in a portable classroom without any lights, constructed quickly to handle children of mothers joining the war effort. During my 13-year journey in our public education system, there was no technology to speak of. We had manual typewriters and slide rules, and learned how to spell by memorization, rather than depending on Spellcheck, an on-line dictionary, word and phrase completion, or an iPhone app – whew! Hard to imagine for someone who, because of reading at over 500 words a minute and losing the ending of many words, became a poor speller.

I’ve experienced almost unbelievable and difficult-to-describe changes through all my years, from being taught by teachers with a normal education – usually two years – to where I’ve been a master teacher to at least five decades of eager educators myself, distancing myself as far as possible from the rote, lecture, repressive and autocratic dispensing of “facts” I endured.

To all of this remembrance, you might ask “so what?” Well, I would love to telepathically chat with my grandkids several decades in the future to see what their lists will include, of their experiences and conditions as they were growing up.

Who knows? Don’t count out the possibility that may yet occur, as technology continues to expand exponentially.