Postman and Reigeluth & Joseph Articles

The article by Reigeluth & Joseph: “Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation” and the article by Postman: “Of Luddites, learning, and life” are both about education and technology, but each article presents a different perspective.

Reigeluth & Joseph’s article is about how technology can transform the way we teach and how our students can improve their learning with the use of it. They state: “It is not an exaggeration to say that technology is indispensable for allowing us to transform teaching and learning to better meets our children’s needs in the information age”. The problem is how to implement this transformation in our schools. I am sure that most teachers agree that technology is the answer to many of the problems we face at school, but I am also sure that we don’t know how take advantage of technology. I particularly use the technology available in my school, but I still think that is not enough. I would like to see more result on my students with the use of it. I really hope we can get that transformation soon in our schools.

Postman’s article is completely different to any education and technology article that I had ever read before. He definitely has a very particular point of view on this matter. He says: “I find that that their enthusiasm is almost wholly centered on the fact that these technologies will give our students greater access to more information faster, more conveniently, and in more various forms that has ever been possible”. To some extent, I agree with part of this statement when he refers to information. But I definitely disagree when he says that our enthusiasm is almost wholly centered to the access to the information that technology allows. I do agree that there is so much information available today that sometimes it can be very confusing for students to discriminate what is important or relevant and what is not.

Technology is definitely changing our world in almost every aspect, so why don’t allow it to change education for the better? Sometimes I wonder how our schools will be in twenty years or fifty. Will we teaching in a school? Will we use any board or book? How personalized will education be? Perhaps I do not have answers for those questions, but I am sure that technology will be there to help.

Reference

Reigeluth, C.M. & Joseph, R. (2002). Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation. Educational Technology, 42(4), 9-13.

Postman, N. (1993). Of Luddites, learning, and life. Technos Quarterly, 2(4).