Technology and Youth Education
"Grup" Influence on Adolescent Education
Technology and our nation's youth are increasingly accessing technology that is created by grups ("grown-ups"). The article looks at consequences and solutions.
Violent video games, ring-tones, Myspace™ and chat have become diversions from societal drudgery for many of us – not to mention texting and email. In fact, many of these diversions are creations of Grups (the new term for “Grown-ups”). Remember a time when adolescents had the simple life: building a fort in the woods, playing with dolls, or going to the movies? These latter behaviors are still normative for many of our youth. However, the former activities have become prevalent and may have elicted a cultural transformation in education. Education, technology funding, literacy and material culture have played a dynamic role in shaping the American educational landscape.
Education, Technology and Families
One would hope that “good” technology serves the purposes of fun, education, and positive cultural reinforcement. A significant difference between different American age cohorts is their focus on supervision of children at home and in school. Recent societal trends in marriage, divorce, and teacher-student ratios in school have had the consequency of a lack of supervision throughout families and our educational system. Regardless of consequences government expenditures keep pouring into education.
Technology Funding in our Schools
If we look at expenditures on technology in American schools we may be swayed into believing that the dumping of cash into the coffers of education is a good measurement of successful education. Carroll [2008] estimates that we have poured $7 billion a year into K-12 schools’ technology infrastructure and hardware. First, we know that these monies are unequally spent in higher income districts. Second, expenditures do not necessarily equate to increased quality of education. One way to ascertain the impact of technology on education is to look at the literacy of our adult population.
The Culture of Literacy & Material Goods
Access to efficient technologies has increased along with expenditures on education. But the literacy of our adult population (the end result of youth education) has not paralleled these developments. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy [Kutner, et al. 2003] reveals this trend:
The results show that the average quantitative literacy scores of adults increased 8 points between 1992 and 2003, though average prose and document literacy did not differ significantly from 1992
In essence, our technologies in the classroom cloak a stagnant adult literacy. Have we become a culture of gadgets and material acquisition over creativity and work ethic? Others have addressed part of this question. For instance a century ago, Thorstein Veblen [1902] coined the term “Conspicuous Consumption,” the notion that we acquire things to show them off, not for their intrinsic value. Today, Veblen’s conception is embedded in our educational system.
When we look around us and notice youth’s demands for material goods and cultural capital (degrees, social status, etc.) are we really seeing our youth as they have always been – anti-establishment and egocentric? Grups have had a significant impact on our childrens' patterned ways of lifestyle and their future parenting and teaching styles.
Grup Self-Inventory
For the Grup reader, take a self-inventory of the violence, deviance, and material acquisitions (IPODs, the Internet, fashionable clothes and games) you are immersed in. Upon conducting such an inventory, one will no doubt arrive at an understanding of how our adolescents have been transformed. Our culture has shifted by way of fast-paced communications, cultural expectations on dating, marriage, divorce, and capital; and a lack of delayed gratification among our youth. These patterned ways of behaving are mere reflections of our adult, societal ways of living. Should we expect any different behavior from our youth than that exhibited through our technology, especially since adults give such high regard to this technology?
So, next time you grimace at the headlines on “Britney,” “O.J.,” “Hannah Montana,” or “Paris Hilton,” don’t blame the youth, turn off the T.V., shut the PC down, stop yelling at your dog, and take a self-inventory. Grups are creating and marketing technology to our youth. They are teaching the new patterned ways of living in America.
References
Carroll, Thomas G. (2008). If We Didn’t Have the Schools We Have Today, Would We Create The Schools We Have Today? U.S. Department of Education. February 19, 2008.
Kutner, Mark, Greenberg, Elizabeth and Justin Baer. (2003). Average Prose and Document Literacy Scores Rise for Blacks and Asians But Decrease Among Hispanics. U.S. Department of Education. Downloaded on February 19, 2008. For further information, contact Sheida White, NAAL Project Officer, NCES, at sheida.white@ed.gov
Veblen, Thorstein. (1902). The Theory of The Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: MacMillan.
Techlearning. Set My Photos (Copyright) free! Downloaded on February 21, 2008.
