Personally, I’m not sure those who oppose the increased use of new technologies in education disagree that students are engaged. Rather, it seems they simply want to be convinced the cost is worth the investment (Selwyn, 2002). A huge challenge to Education as an institution, is justifying the cost of integrating new technologies, since research shows little more than what we already agree upon – that students are more interested in computers than paper and pencil.

Which costs more?… a calculator or the time required to memorize the formulas in order to solve problems on paper? Time costs more because time is the currency of the 21st century. However, is saving time by using a calculator actually having a debilitating influence on the generations no longer required to learn the formulas in their head?

Or does the new technology allow the time to be spent learning other, new information, thus advancing the next generation to unprecedented experiences?

This is the dilemma between the two sides who debate whether costs for technologies are justifiable, warranted, etc. Even if we had all the money, would we be producing a better product? (i.e. a better generation to go on after us?). Much depends on what the present culture values.

I often ask my college age children what their cohorts consider to be the most important values to pass on to their own children some day. In other words, what do they value most? The responses are quite telling. “People exploit what they merely have concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love”(Forbes, 2001, p32). But that’s for a future post…

References
Forbes, P. 2001. The great remembering. San Francisco: The Trust for Public Land. Quoting Berry, W. 2000. Life is a miracle. Washington, D.C: Counterpoint Press.

Selwyn, N. (2002). Learning to love the micro: The discursive construction of ‘educational’ computing in the UK, 1979-89. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23(3), 427-443.