Thinking, not computing.

“We need to get away from the notion that computers are something we go use in a lab once a week. When was the last time we sent kids to a pencil lab?”
Chris Lehman, principal at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia

I think what Mr. Lehman is saying is that the computer, as a tool, needs to be more integrated into the entire educational experience. Additionally, and perhaps more subtly inferred, is the notion that training the mind comes before the use of tools to express or document what the mind produces. Once again, it is the mind that matters in education. The tools change. The tools are secondary to education and the two are distinctly different.

The difficulty, however, comes in when the lives of our young people (the MySpace Generation) are filled with “programmed” activities. Yes, it’s fascinating to play with ipods and personal computers and phone cameras and to learn flash and photoshop and imovie and 2nd life virtual realities. But filling our lives, or the lives of our children, with these activities precludes the possibility of developing imagination. If we fill all our time learning the tools, when do we learn to think, imagine and make the connection between the tool and what to do with it? The whole person, complete with curiosity, imagination, and motivation to connect the dots is the goal of education. The tools don’t do it. Effective pedagogy and assessment does.

The value in learning programmed tools and applications is two fold. The most obvious is learning to use the tool. Then, there’s the less obvious, what to do with it? Web 2.0 Technology gives us the invaluable opportunity to connect in ways that were never possible before. The value in learning the tools is in answering the question, where will the next generation take this technology and how can we educate the mind to do it in the best possible way. Where do we want the next generation to go? Are the values of peace, moral conscience, and world-wide human betterment still the goal? How do we teach our coning generations to use the tools of technology to get closer to the goal than we have?