Chapter 4 begins with the results of a survey of high school and college students and their digital research skills. The study found that while the students surveyed could use technology they were not always able to use it well. "Asked to construct a persuasive slide for a presentation 8 percent of them "used entirely irrelevant points" and 80 percent of them mixed relevant and irrelevant points, leaving only 12 percent who stuck to the argument" p. 114. The chapter continued to list a number of points all telling that increased use of technology has not resulted in achievement gains and suggested that the reader should thus question the value of digital learning.
Bauerlein wrote that vocabulary and comprehension skills gained largely through social and home life are what truly influence achievement gains. He says it is not possible for them to learn all that they need in school and that their use of technology can actually have a negative impact on learning. "Teen blog writing sticks to the lingo of teens and actually grooves bad habits" p. 132. "It (technology) super powers their social impulses, but blocks intellectual gains" p. 139. He says that students don't use technology to learn more about their world they use it to learn more about each other.
The author begins looking at the ways that reading text on the computer differs from reading text on paper. He writes that screen reading is very different from book reading and that, "Only 16 percent of subjects read text on various pages work for word sentence by sentence. The rest scanned them and processed them out of sequence" p. 143. He tells the reader that even when reading news "The most common behavior is to hunt for information and be ruthless in ignoring the details" p. 144. I thought this was interesting because a military recruiter recently told me that when they need a recruit to improve their ASVAB scores the best thing to do was make sure they took the paper version of the test because that always seemed to raise their scores.
Bauerlein closed the chapter by extending the idea that, for this generation, technology will extend their adolescence because they are able to limit their contact with things they don't think they will like and aren't interested in learning about.
I would like to note that while the author has mentioned that employers are not pleased with the lack of what he has refered to as 'basic skills' such as spelling and grammar he never touches on the benefits of having employees who come to them with some technology skills saving them time and money that would have been spent on training. I wonder if this never came up in all of his research or if he just left it out.
What an interesting question about employers' happiness with employee technology skills. I would think that they would be happy with their employees' familiarity and comfort with technology usage.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as Bauerlein points out in this chapter, an employee's inability to identify credible sites/information is a real liability. On pg 114 Bauerlein had this to say which I found myself agreeing to: "Academic and workplace performance increasingly depends on the ability to identify trustworthy sources, select relevant information, and render it in clear, useful form to others, tasks that exceeded the talents of most students."
As a librarian, I am always teaching my students information literacy skills as relates to the retrieval of accurate electronic information. It is a skill that I find needs lots of reinforcement from year to year. Have any of you checked out the McWhortle Enterprises site: http://www.mcwhortle.com/
This site is a perfect on to use to teach information literacy reading skills.
Bauerlein's comment about high school and college students caught my attention. He states that they are comfortable with technology tools but not able to discern whether the information they access is reliable (p.113). It’s important that we teach our students what to look for to determine the reliability of the information on a site.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the author (p. 127) about the effect of early language experiences on a child’s future success in school. Children who have a rich language experience while young will typically do very well in school. I have noticed though many of the shortcuts of texting showing up in their writing. It is really frustrating trying to get them to change those habits.
This author is so negative about youth and technology. If his view is accurate then we are sure wasting a lot of time on enhancing our skills. As with most things, I think finding
Even as I spend hours a day at my computer: at work taking attendance, entering grades, looking for lesson plan ideas; at home balancing my checkbook, reading news sites, social networking; what I found most interesting in this chapter was the paradox between what this book is saying and what we are leaning. On page 125, Bauerlein actually caused me to get out a highlighter: "Ever optimistic, techno-cheerleaders view the digital learning experience through their own motivated eyes, and they picture something that doesn't yet exist: classrooms illuminating the wide, wide world, teachers becoming twenty-first-century techno-facilitators, and students at screens inspired to ponder, imagine, reflect, analyze, memorize, recite, and create." This right here is what we are striving for in this class; yet, part of me agrees with Bauerlein that it does not exist and if his studies are correct then it will never exist. When I give my students a question that requires pondering, thinking, and an answer that goes beyond what is on the page they get frustrated and instead of working out the problem they say, "I don't get it." End of story. I read the story you wanted me to, but "I didn't get it." No, I re-read the story, took notes, thought about what I was reading and searched for understanding. I read the words and didn't get it. This frustrates me as a teacher because I feel that by giving my students the tools for reading comprehension (just like giving them the tools for technology) that they should ponder and reflect their way to understanding. So far my students have not proved able to do this.
ReplyDeleteAlso in this chapter Bauerlein recounts statistics and studies that show students enjoy computers but do not learn more from them and some schools are going away from the 1:1 computer model. I know my school is 1:1 and most of my students seldom take their computers home and they moan and complain when I ask them to use them in class. I can understand where he is coming from on this point. I often wonder if they are a beneficial or a large distraction.
Several points I found in this specific chapter that caught my attention include the p.119 remark that self-reported happiness doesn't equate to better learning. How true. I'm sure every kid would like the school to hand over a laptop- maybe that's a good idea since so many don't carry pencils to math class or lose their English books. He also introduced me to the idea of linear and non-linear thinking p.141. Now, this is vital to someone teaching remedial reading and language arts skills. Continuing with the reading style involved with pc screens, he shocked me into rethinking with his eye movements and web pages information, p.143-146. I have already shared this information with several English teachers at my school because I feel this is of tremendous importance. I even shared the advertisers information with our year book publishing teacher.
ReplyDeleteAs with the other chapters I find myself cringing as I read the negative attacks on the youth today. It feels like the author has a grudge agaist Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. He keeps ridiculing the millennials for their over use of technology. He focuses entirely on the negative impacts of technology and never mentions the benefits of being educated how to use it. I understand the title of the book is "The Dumbest Generation" and he is trying to prove a point but it's still hard for me to swollow all the negativity surrounding technological advancements.
ReplyDeleteI related with his "interlaced browsing" on p. 145 where he talked about "opening several windows and hopping back and forth, reading a bit on one site, then a bit on another, then returning for more to the original, then opening a new window...not focused on any one single site." I do just this as I do work for this class, for my own classes, for my personal surfing, or for just about anything. I find myself wasting time if I fully search just one site.
I also liked his "teenagers don't like to read a lot on the Web. They get enough of that at school." p. 147 I do agree that youth don't go to the internet to read, they go to browse until they find something that interests them. Even after finding something of interest they still don't want to read any article in its entirety. I can completely relate when he talked about subscribing to newsletters and rss feeds and still only read 19% of newsletters fully. I set up my rss newsfeeds to exactly what I want to read and still find myself skimming only a very few of the articles and only headlines of everything else. I feel that it's not a lack of appreciating or wanting to know, just a lack of time.
Overall I have found myself disagreeing more than agreeing with Bauerlein throughout the book so far but I am still interested to see if he concludes anything other than the youth are really the dumbest generation.