Technology is advancing so quickly you hardly purchase one new device before there's a new and improved version already on the market. Keeping up is nearly impossible. Worse yet it seems to be creating a divide few think about.
The other day I heard a prominent educator in a large city commenting on the fact that all the children in his school system would now have computers. I mentally applauded that. Technology is wonderful. And then he said, "Before this (acquisition of all the computers) there were some children in the district who knew where Australia was and others who didn't."
Excuse me? Don't schools have maps? Books? Teachers who teach?
Okay, I'm old school, as well as being old...er, but there was something about this man's statement that made me stop and think. The younger generation is becoming more and more dependent on developing technology while many older folks are isolated from the worldwide web either by choice or circumstances.
In my husband's case he flat out doesn't want to learn how to use a computer and is perfectly happy devouring three newspapers every day supplemented by news magazines like the Economist, Time, Scientific American... I won't go on, but he is an information vacuum. He is better informed than I, a graying geek who gets most of her information online. I read at the shallow level and he reads in depth.
So my question is this: Does access to technology mean we are better informed or better educated?
Clearly the answer is, no. What makes us better informed is the desire to learn. Technology is a tool — not more important than books, or maps, or teachers, but certainly necessary in this ever-changing world.
It's hard to keep up without it.
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