Interactivity #2

What we now would call ‘simple’ tools like scales, hotplates, glassware and microscopes were the most influential technological advances for the science classroom. Although such tools weren’t exactly groundbreaking at the time they were introduced, they represented a big leap forward in students' personal ownership of their understanding of science. They not only would receive great hands-on tools to explore concepts with, they'd be individually responsible for knowing how to use and take care of their equipment. The same way that utilizing presentation technology (smartboards, videos, etc.) is empowering for teachers, providing lab equipment to the student alongside support and training was empowering for the students' in self motivated learning.

A theme that kept constantly popping up in both of the readings was the idea that technology has become a medium for corporate meddling. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, donations would be made to get televisions or computers into schools with the only string attached being advertising. From a protectionist viewpoint, Channel One’s advertisements were perceived as inappropriate and almost akin to propaganda, and it’s no surprise that the biggest voices in the educational world like the NEA, national PTA, AFT and others moved to pull it out of the classroom as soon as possible.

One of the biggest reasons I chose to become a Physics teacher is because I believe that learning to see things through a scientific lens is empowering, even to students who think they hate the content. Those who come from more creative fields, like art and literature, often criticize the scientific mind for being too cold or only seeing things one way. But in reality, a mature scientific mind constantly questions the world – we aren’t here to tell students that planets move in the way that they do and that atoms have certain properties, we’re here to cultivate a desire to know how the universe works.
To me, advertisements and propoganda in a student’s life are among the most toxic things that can ruin his or her ability to think creatively and scientifically. It’s worrisome enough that students’ private lives are filled with activities that are saturated with advertisements (television, internet), but to think that that corporations actually tried (and at times succeeded) to get their feet in the door of our schools and program our kids to be consumers… it’s sickening. My job to get a student to think and learn at very high orders of complexity, to get them to a point where they can challenge and modify their own observations and view of the universe, and this all becomes pointless when the student has grown up accustomed to being told what others want him or her to believe. We obviously can't fully control what they're exposed to outside of school that may shift their mindsets, but we need to keep doing our best to make sure they aren't exposed to that influence within the school and perhaps educate them early on how to identify and evaluate propoganda and misinformation that they may be exposed to online and on TV.

                               

Nothing ruins learning the truth like being exposed to an exciting lie.