Just the Facts, Ma'am

One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with. ~ Marshall McLuhan

The question is this: What should we know in our own heads and what should we simply leave to a machine's storage device?

Joe Makley has a fascinating post on this very subject titled, "Platitudes and Orthodoxy in Web 2.0." But Joe goes beyond whether a fact is completely necessary to learn. He speaks to the issue of focus and contemplation in this world where we are bombarded by so much information that we often operate on an instant-to-instant crisis basis rather than through deliberation and thoughtfulness.

Are we in danger of losing both our roots and our wings? Our souls? Any thoughts about taming the technology beast?

Taming the Beast - Choice & Control in the Electronic Jungle by Jason Ohler.
The Idea of Global Collective Memory
Artificial Intelligence at LIM Resources Wiki

Educators as Enemies

"We've made the mistake of thinking that because we measure achievement in schools, that's the only place it's produced. We conveniently ignore what goes on before the child arrives in school. We find it easy to overlook what's happening outside the classroom, and we act as though the choices students and their families make don't matter."

~ James Harvey

Article in New Horizons for Learning: "Nation's Students still at Risk" by James Harvey.

Related resource: Poverty & Discipline at Mike Muir's McMEL Resources Wiki

Discuss.

Taming the Beast

There seems to be a coming-of-age event that people of my generation are increasingly experiencing, if not thoroughly enjoying. I am speaking of the wondrous colonoscopy. I will spare you the specific details, but suffice it to say, should you have airs of self-righteousness or a certain holier-than-thou dignity, it certainly quite effectively pulls you back down to earth. I speak from personal experience over the past 2 days. :)

But on a high note . . . I also finally got my chance to read Jason Ohler's Taming the Beast - Choice & Control in the Electronic Jungle (1999) which I had bought months ago on Amazon. I had frequently visited Ohler's website, so I was no stranger to the questions he has been asking. Both his work and that of Neil Postman play much into my own thinking about the place of information and technology in our schools and culture. My view: Jason Ohler gets it!

Sure would be great to have him as a conference speaker in Maine for a refreshing viewpoint. What do you think?

More Jason Ohler Links

Medical Sites:

eMedicine
Mayo Clinic
Medicine.net
Jackson GI Care
Medicine Plus