I recently read a New York times article that argues technology might be changing the attention spans of students and how they learn. This seems to have been an opinion since the introduction and continued mass use of technology. Because of our constant connectivity to digital entertainment and forms of communication, technology has made “reality, by comparison, uninteresting”.
The digital world is more interesting than the real world in many aspects: it has theme music, is presented in heavily edited flashes, is dramatic and stimulating, and like reality can sometimes even be interacted with. The Times article cites the research of Dr. Dimitri Christakis who studies the impact of technology on the brain: “we are experiencing a supernatural stimulation that teachers might have to keep up with or stimulate”. I thought this approach was interesting. He is suggesting that teachers adjust their strategy to better suit the changing learning habits of their students. As we continue to become more reliant on technology—to communicate, interact and learn—it makes sense to me that we best learn how to use and interact with these newly developing tools.
After having read this article I couldn’t help but laugh, as the first “article” I read for this week was one that didn’t look much like the traditional journal article at all. I was drawn to The Anatomy of a Web Map and proceeded to click through the entire presentation, instead of first picking a 9-page article. It was super interesting to learn about the formation and evolution of digital mapping systems, and gave me a much broader perspective and appreciation for GIS systems. It’s crazy how a concept like “tiles” can completely change the usability of a digital tool! I have no previous background in programming, but was exposed to a GIS-type software in an environmental science class last year. We used the software to predict landscapes over time, by changing different human-made inputs such as pollution or waste disposal. It was an incredibly valuable experience: we were able to actually interact and see what we had been learning in lecture and through our readings actually happening. I think this deeper level of interaction in an invaluable tool, and as Dr. Christakis suggested, I think teachers could evolve their methods of teaching and examination to better utilize digital tools and our new approach to interacting with the world, digitally.
In addition to using these digital tools—especially mapping tools—as educational assets, they can also be used as public tools. City planners can interact with spaces digitally, so as to better plan our urban infrastructure; environmental scientists can track and predict landscape changes; the directionally challenge (like myself) can make their way around town; and public service agents and doctors can more easily track disease.
In this video Steven Johnson, who recently published an Op-Ed piece on the Ebola Crisis in the New York Times, discusses how mapping has historically been a tool for tracking and controlling disease, and how it remains a valuable tool today.