Living in a high-tech-driven country, we're face to face with an array of tech devices and their effects — positive and negative — daily, even hourly ... OK, by the minute, too.
So it's important to ask the difficult-to-answer questions to keep ourselves in check: Are our communication skills enhanced because of new technology? Does new technology encourage imaginative thinking? Are we sacrificing three-dimensional real-life experiences with two-dimensional screen time? How has it impacted our interpersonal and social relationships?
The answers vary as much as the patterns on our fingerprints — thus the reason to continue asking ourselves and thinking about how much and when to embrace tech devices, and when to avoid them.
Recently I read that more than 80 percent of U.S. school districts say they are on the cusp of incorporating Web-enabled tablets into everyday curriculums. Neal Dow Elementary in Chico already has implemented the usage of Neos for each student in first through sixth grade. Teachers have been through extensive training. With these handheld devices, students can take accelerated reading and math quizzes, practice math facts, write and respond to questions and check their work. Neos use an infrared technology, not web-based.
"Students are making academic gains," fifth-grade teacher Sheila Penman says. "Data can be input efficiently and quickly, and students get immediate feedback."
For any type of learner, immediate feedback is what it's all about. For teachers, it's crucial. They know what to teach next, which students need a review, who needs to be challenged, or wait ... the majority of students didn't get the concept, so let's teach it in a different way.
Travel across town to Blue Oak, a K-8 Waldorf Methods public charter school — where our 9-year-old son recently started fourth grade — and a computer or handheld device is as rare as a Starbucks without Wi-Fi. Usage of electronic devices is discouraged outside of school. Kids use chalk with boards and high-quality colored pencils that need sharpening often. Third-graders begin gliding bows on violin strings after learning to play the recorder. Computer classes begin in seventh grade. The Waldorf Methods schools affirm this: the intelligence and imagination of the young child is best developed without the use of technology.
And I read that Los Angeles County plans to spend $30 million on classroom iPads this year. I would bet enrollment will increase, and students — some for the first time — will enter new dimensions with the touch of their fingertips. It's valid that educational games and interactive websites can and will offer cognitive benefits, but focusing on face-to-face interactions and staying connected to the outdoor cycles of nature are just as integral to a quality education.
Such extremes in our schools are mind boggling. However, choices like these symbolize the essence of a democracy. Yes, there's a culture clash regarding high-tech usage, so it's important to talk about it. With the likely increase of iPads and tech devices in the schools, how can we ensure we're not de-emphasizing creativity and imagination for the sake of high test scores or just to be "high tech"?
It's easy to get carried away with the ease and efficiency of technology, and yes, it has a place. So let's stay attuned to the question, "At what expense?" How do we balance the scales so the whole child is nurtured and learning experiences that are authentic — not primarily through a screen — fill their days, while at the same time, we provide engaging and enriching opportunities with technology?
Julie Anderson-Nilsson is a Chico resident and columnist for North State Voices, a rotating panel of columnists that appears each Thursday. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.