Edging Ahead…

It’s a crazy world. Ray Kurzweil claims that “the singularity is near” - that point at which computer processing power will match human capabilities - and it’s likely to happen within the working lifetime of the kids we’re teaching today. 

What’s on the other side of that watershed moment?  On the one hand, a graph of technological change is nearing the vertical, which leads one to wonder if the singularity will signal the end of human evolution as we know it. Are humans destined to be replaced by our creation? Will the Terminator scenario become a reality? Will our daliance with the glitterati of instant access and our infatuation with living largely in the bubble of our personal online community mean that we face the world post-singularity without the social tools to cope with a new reality?  On the other hand, a timeline of world history suggests that nothing really “ends” - it just morphs into something new, although often reminiscent in odd ways, of that which it replaces. And so the question of balance becomes - are we’re adequately - and appropriately - preparing our students for the future, whatever that may be?

The rush to adopt new information-seeking, management and manipulative tools is a daily reminder of this question of balance. As we approach this watershed moment in human history, we’re constantly wowed by powerful new information storage, retrieval and manipulative capabilities, and now the latest web2.0 interactive strategies for becoming participants in this grand experiment. These are powerful and amazing for the sheer kick of what they allow us to do, but down at the heart of it, aren’t we simply reliving the technological promises of the past, albeit on a vastly amplified scale? Back in the Day, as they sometimes say, before educational technology became a synonym for Cool, those of us looking for new and better ways to stimulate learning were almost as wowed by VHS video, Programmed Learning and Interactive Multimedia as the new educational entrepreneurs today are by Skype, Twitter and Jing. Back then, it looked like it couldn’t get any better than “Anywhere, Anytime” Learning, and it seemed that the development curve was reaching the vertical in terms of what was possible with video and multimedia.

But then the Web came along.

Beginning in the mid-’90’s, the World Wide Web became the new Library of Alexandria - all the world’s information gathered in one (virtual) place. Building on the ubiquity of informationa access that resulted, communications technologies have shrunk the world to the size of your monitor and input device so with Skype, SMS and Twitter (just some of today’s catchwords) you can keep up a moment-by-moment discourse with like-minded colleagues in the far corners of the globe. And now the rendering capabilities of the new machines make a virtual tour of London, New York or the Grand Canyon only as far away as Google Earth and exploration of worlds of the imagination another click away in virtual environments like World of Warcraft or Second Life.

The Point (again)?

I guess, for me, the point is that while we need to invest relatively heavily in exploring what’s possible with the range of new tools available to us as educators, it’s important to not lose sight of “the forest for the trees”. It’s important to find a Balance between exploring the new and the unknown and paying homage to (and reapplying lessons from) the past. The Balancing Point is the Here and Now. Lean too much on past experience and we risk slipping back into obscelescence and Irrelevance - but bound too eagerly forward, and we run the equal risk of sliding into the chaos of entrepreneurial anarchy. I’m playing with words here, extrapolating to the logical conclusion of either course, but the sentiment is real

The Big Picture is what’s important, and for me, that means imparting to kids the analytic, metacognitive and communications skills to cope with the next generation of technological gewgaws and bangles - and to be ready as adults for not only whatever’s beyond the Big Bang of the technological Singularity, but what’s on the horizon in the next decade, or perhaps even next year. And that means not abandoning the personal 1on1, F2F learning that takes place when two learners sit down together - in the same physical space - and learn from each other.  Or when one person sits down in a quiet room - with a piece of “realia” - a physical, tangible item that he or she can hold, examine, study and ingest -  a painting, a piece of sculpture, a book.. and learns from it - as we have done since man’s first steps on that long road to the Singularity.

As always, when it’s a question of Balance, one’s attention can never stray for long…