Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

I tend to agree with Will’s view:

The problem is that these types of technologies and the shifts they are facilitating are not prominently on the radar of any of the conferences I’ve been to of late. In fact, I am still amazed at the virtual lack of presentations that put the use of any technology use in the context of anything greater than the four walls of the traditional classroom. We need to be more expansive in our thinking. We need to be talking more about the opportunities “out there” instead of how to make things incrementally better “in here.” (I’m serious, right now, all sessions on PowerPoint should be banned from conference schedules.) If educators who pay their way to ed tech events don’t at least leave with a sense of the changes and opportunities that the Web affords these days, they’re wasting their money.

It’s certainly true of a lot of educational conferences here in the UK, punctuated by those that have their fingers on the pulse (which usually involves getting Peter Ford to do one of his inspirational sessions

There seems plenty of conferences on blogging in other forums, business, media etc. For example, the BBC and Reuters have just concluded a two day conference exploring the global impact of technology and the internet on the media and society. Yet, looking at the reports and blogs the role of education seems not to have been mentioned. Why is this?

In one of the keynotes on the opening day, Richard Dreyfuss warned the audience:

“I applaud the technology that leads us all here,” he said. “But I don’t applaud the self-imposed blindness when we overlook the potential damage this technology can do.

“And this is something everyone in broadcasting should start thinking about. The technology is demanding that we rethink how to think.

“This technology can lead us to fatal conclusions without the time to change our minds.”

The BBC blogger concludes:

“For Dreyfuss, this conclusion is one based on hatred, ignorance and hysteria.

“There is no doubt that we live in a very different news world now, with 24-hour news channels, constantly updated news websites and million of blogs. It is just the way of the world now.

“But Dreyfuss is raising an important point. While we may have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, do we have the time to process what we learn?

“Where is the time to apply reason and logic, and question what we watch and read?”

Surely, this is where education has a role to play, if not for the ‘digital immigrants’, but for the ‘digital natives’?