Written by So Blended Learning http://www.christenseninstitute.org/blended-learning-3/ is this idea that students are now learning through not only textbooks and library resources but through digital media systems as well; kind of exactly what Cohort21 is all about. I found an interesting article from Scientific American that describes a discrepancy between information read from books and information read from a screen http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=reading-paper-screens&page=2
As I mentioned briefly in a previous post ‘Learning in the Clouds’ we have plunged into the digiverse and we certainly don’t want studying on computers and incorporation of the internet in our classes to be the Thalidomide of education. You know, we think it’s all great and then in a few years we find that it is more detrimental than it is helpful.
I have bounced around on my initial few posts here from playful poetry, to fanciful foods, and what it means to have a name and a digital address/footprint and have been struggling with my own much more public presence.
I get the power of technology and I love it! I am learning more and more every day about the amazing things that educators and students and quite frankly, most everyone online contributes to our learning. I feel the potential overflowing! I hear stories of great impact being made and new approaches being found for old problems that may lead to new solutions.
And all of this is revolving around some brand of blended learning – students using technology to build skills. So this Scientific American article (link above) that talks about information retention being more effective through books because it is easier to focus on pages that aren’t changing uncontrollably before your eyes with pop-up windows and message threads gave me moment to pause.
Educators today talk about skills and life-long learning as opposed to content mastery and packets of information input and output. But skills are not just learned through doing or seeing or hearing they are also realized through reading. If our students may retain something less from reading from a digital source what kind of responsibility do we have to compensate? Or regulate? Or to be more active in our reporting of what is working and not working.
I know there is a mountain of information being posted online all the time and for education I have seen most of it for GREAT something-or-others. But for the few people who may actually read this, I challenge you to post on your blog or twitter or Diigo or whatever network you are using an example of what has NOT worked for you in education and technology. I like the Bandwagon but Devil’s Advocate has value too. I’m wondering if maybe we need a few more dregs to appreciate the wine . . . and to make sure we are indeed getting it right for our students.