1) Describe your opinion of the “effect of technology” vs. “the effect with technology” on intelligence?
The effect of technology on intelligence is the new gadgets and tools we now have available to help engage learning. We now have the world wide web, smart phones, and endless programs, such as BB and Moodle to promote learning. Technology is also doing more for us than ever before for example cars that now start with the push of a button.
The effect with technology on intelligence is that with these new tools learning potential is endless to what the learner makes it. With technology the learner can foster self development, grow, and continue to learn at a rapid pace if so desired. It allows the learner to not only self guide learning, but also be open to guided learning in web environments such as our wiki, where learning is nurtured and guided with our fearless facilitator Dr. Calvert. Although with technology intelligence has the ability to ignite and download information, I also think some of the latter may also be true. Because technology continues to evolve and appears to do more and more for us, does that hinder our intelligence….. For example the push button to start a car, if that is the only technology one knows in starting a car, does that hinder the persons intelligence in now not knowing how to start a car with a key….. I don’t know, food for thought.
2) How do you believe that the “Zone of Proximal Development” theory as described by Vygotsky has evolved with the introduction of technology?
The ZPD has evolved with technology in that the difference between what a learner can do with help and what a learner can do without help has more elements involved with technology. Including technology this gap may not be so great for some learners. I know many people who use new technology as a way of self devlopment in learning a new idea on their own. What a learner can do without help with technology may be much higher than it used to be. Because there is so much information available at our fingertips. I do still believe that in many cases what a learner can do with help with technology will still provide more effective outcomes. When we have the assistance and guidance in learning a new skill or idea, we have the option of asking questions, and obtaining feedback from each other. This helps clarify learning. When learning on our own, we may not have the option of asking a professional for guidance.
Hi Misty. Hope you enjoyed the reading this week.
Regarding your first point, I think one important piece of context for grappling with Pea’s view of technologies is the statement he makes about intelligence being “accomplished” vs. “possessed.” I think it’s a compelling idea, but it does raise some challenging questions for thinking about teaching and learning. (For example, when students are using powerful tools with a lot of intelligence “embedded” in them, how can we be sure that students have mastered the underlying principles upon which the designs of the tools they are using are based?
We’re far more limited in what we can do on our own (without tools), but from an educational perspective, not allowing students to use tools (other than their own brains) lets us feel more confident that if a student comes up with a correct answer or good solution to a problem, he or she mastered the content we were aiming to teach. (This is definitely one of the reasons why students are often forbidden from using external resources when taking formal assessments, even though doing so means that formal testing situations often bear little resemblance to “real life” problem solving.)
I liked Matt’s question on ZPD. My short answer is that technology makes the ZPD much much bigger. 🙂
Hope you have a good Thanksgiving and get a little bit of R&R with friends and family before buckling down for the end-of-semester crunch!
November 23, 2010 @ 1:28 am