Some Fun Facts About Education & Technology

I'm finishing up my syllabi for the Winter 2012 semester, and one of the many things that I've included that I don't enjoy is the restriction on in-class use of cell phones. Why such a hard-ass about smartphones? I've looked at the research in cognitive neuroscience on the problems with problem-solving and attention and task switching and the like, and it all points to one thing: Get those phones out of the classroom. Which is why I was interested to see the first graphic below.

Obv., the gist is that smartphones are being used more and more in the classroom for legit purposes, at least some of the time. There are some cool sites such as Poll Everywhere that allow for phone-based responses to questions in class, much like a clicker system. So now I'm torn -- I want to stay true to the research behind banning the phones, but I like the possibilities of getting data on relevant questions in pretty close to real time. And if in-class use of existing technologies can facilitate that, then I need to consider the possibilities.

Besides, life-integrated tech is what "the kids" are doing, and if we're going to succeed in education, there needs to be some movement on both sides of the professor-student divide w/r/t tools for engaging our charges. How wired are today's youths? Consider the second graphic below. Of course, when you are never off because you're always connected to a growing litany of personal tech, that has some implications for education and interpersonal interactions. Maybe I need to rethink my cell phone ban. Or maybe I need a spinal implant with USB's to power all my tech through the power of my own bodily processes. No matter what, however, the intersection of technology and education is uneasy and novel. And, from time to time, loud.

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"The Silver Gun" by Robert Palmer (1983)

I mean...Urdu? Seriously, Urdu . On an already eclectic and worldly album -- Pride , from 1983 -- "The Silver Gun" closes a chapter in Robert Palmer's career by singing a song about a horse in a language spoken daily by over 100 million people. The liquid bass line and propulsive electronics set out a bedrock for Palmer to ping phrasings rather out of place in Western music, askew astride even the peripatetic minimalism of the rest of the record. Somehow, in the middle of Michigan's Appalachia, I had this on vinyl a few years before the CD era officially commenced. It was an album of effort -- even the cover, a pointillism-and-bronze work, had Palmer's head barely above the water -- but the stitches didn't show to my pre-adolescent eyes and ears. In a career marked by zigs and zags, Pride and "The Silver Gun" were most certainly Other, and for a kid that felt like he didn't belong much of anywhere, it was nice to have those discrete feeling...

"I'll Drive You Home"

Upon reflection, I’ve had a fortunate life in the area of work. As a freshly minted teenager, I would visit Evergreen Park Grocery and dream of someday working there like my father did, and at the age of 14, I got $2/hour to live out that dream, such as it was. From there, I yearned to try other occupations, from record stores to teaching, and I’d be chuffed to tell Young Erick that both of those things happened in due course. ( Oh, and Young Erick, one of them got you to meet David Bowie, and one of them got you to own houses and cars, so I’ll let you ponder on which one was better. ) I even got to DJ a bit here and there, and while it never hit the heights of a professional radio gig, it was certainly better than the summer I played preset cassettes on my boom box for a nerd camp dance while my unrequited crush stayed in her room. What I never crossed off my professional life list was acting, either regular or voice, but while I still yearn for that big breakthrough -- seriously, ask...

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Infographic by College Scholarships.org

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