Consequences of Technology:

From a summary on Neil Postman's Technopoly:  The Surrender of Culture to Technology

There are 3 types of cultures:

1. tool-using cultures (everyone up till 17th century: using tools to fulfill immediate needs)

2. technocracies (19th century America:  tools / technology fight culture by challenging existing traditional belief systems)

3. technopolies (Totalitarian technocracy:  tradition is no longer challenged because it is seen as irrelevant)

Technopoly is a state of culture / state of mind, where we search for answers in technology, take orders from technology, and are satisfied through technology.  We think that technology is a superhuman feat that can solve our worst dilemmas.

This results in our over-trusting and over-application of technology, where we loose track of the vast amounts of information being transferred through computers.  This can cause us to loose track of important problems that need solving due to our over-reliance on computers.  (I think this is a bit extreme...)

We see two conflicting worlds in school children:  that of the written word (textbooks, etc) vs. technology (Internet, computers, TV, etc).  One emphasizes logic, history, exposition... while the latter emphasizes imagery, immediate gratification, presentness.  These two worlds battle in each child's head, and can cause problems with reading, etc.  Today's good student could be a failure in schools 50 years from now, while today's bad student may be excellent in schools 50 years from now.

Conclusion:  How does the computer change the classic model of 'school'?  How will it affect learning?