Is This Week 10?

Note: Pressed again for time, this will be a short blog in which I give my overall impression of the readings together instead of considering them individually.

It was with great interest that I read about the rise and demise of film, radio, and television as the instructional medium for classrooms. (I like history.) Although radio and television are useful for broadcasting news and emergency events, today we think of all three (film, radio, and television) as being more for entertainment than for educational purposes.

[As for the demise of the silent film and radio as a means of instruction, I am glad to see their departure. Both of these mediums are inherently flawed by nature. The former medium would tend to benefit visual learners far more than auditory learners and vise-versa for the latter.]

However, I admit it was rather disconcerting to read the "Digital Disconnect" article and realize that teachers, or the American educational system, seem to be treating the internet with the same disregard that film, radio, and television received in their own heyday. While film, radio, and television are used primarily for entertainment, the internet is being used by students just as much for educational purposes as for a source of entertainment.

Hm, perhaps that is the factor that will make all the difference: students, both high school and elementary, are using the internet to help them with their schoolwork. Instead of being prescribed by school administers above, the embrace of this technology has started from below at the student level.

It seems to me that more teachers would want to take advantage of what the internet offers, especially because some of the old excuses as to why audio-visual technologies of the past did not catch on do not apply now. For instance, the issues of program scheduling need not apply to the internet. With the exception of scheduled chats, the internet has an open schedule. By this, I mean teachers need not worry that a certain television program occurs at 1:00p.m. Internet websites can be accessed at anytime (unless they are down due to site maintenance.)

When it comes to the internet usage in education, the limits that occur seem to be ones that the administration or teachers are imposing themselves rather than being constraints of the technology. For instance, why couldn't homework assignments be geared to take more advantage of the internet? Why can't more teachers be accessible by email outside of the classroom?

I have a fear (that may be completely unfounded) that teachers and schools who neglect the internet in their scholastic programs are asking for trouble in terms of students who are internet savvy being left unchallenged by traditional schooling. Moreover, what's to stop these students from becoming lazy and using the internet to cheat more and more (ripping papers off the internet, etc.) if their usage isn't being monitored in some fashion or if they do not perceive that it is being monitored?

I happen to find the internet to be a great resource and a tremendous help scholastically. I can search hundreds, even thousands of online journals for a topic I need, much faster than if I had to manually gather those journals myself. Using the internet to conduct research is also an efficient use of time. No wonder teenagers say that they can do homework faster with the internet than they can without. And speaking of time, I am now out of it...