My research interests focus on how youth use new technologies and the effects of this use on their social development and learning. I’m constantly reading about new technologies, gadgets, video games, and platforms. Naturally, I am skeptical when I read blogs and pieces from folks who are “social media gurus” that decry how backwards education is, and that we need to incorporate Twitter, blogs, and Facebook to revolutionize schooling. So we should incorporate Twitter now, but what about in 3 years, what else should we pin our revolutionary hopes on?
A major discussion amongst techno-enthusiasts focuses on the apparently detrimental effect schools have on student learning with media. As Henry Jenkins asserts, schools force students to learn in ways that are very different than how they learn outside of classroom walls. Instead of sharing knowledge via their networks, students complete worksheets in rows of desks. Usually, I react to these statements with a yawn.
But now, count me among the converted. Lately, I’ve been working in two public school districts on my dissertation, where we are introducing a social network site to students and teachers. We (the districts and I) want to see if online networking does in fact have benefits for the classroom. I’ve met numerous teachers who are energetic, open-minded, and flat out excited to try new things like social networking in their classrooms. But for every innovative teacher I’ve observed 10 who just flat out don’t care (ironically, some are even technology teachers). I’ve witnessed schools with 10 year old Apple iMacs, with other schools in the same district with $100,000 of equipment in their computer labs. I’ve seen the same $100,000 lab with professional quality printers, HD video cameras, and a blue room… full of students playing non-school related video games. I can see firsthand why many are skeptical of public education’s ability to mobilize new innovations to improve teaching and learning.
It’s been quite a humbling experience. But now I get it. The hub bub is not about asking why teachers don’t use Twitter. It’s about why public education and our schools are so divorced from what’s happening in the real world. There really is a digital divide, and it’s not necessarily between students (as many teachers I’ve spoken to believe). The divide is between all the technical talents of youth today and the inability of our education system to mobilize those talents to aid in learning.
- June Ahn
