Remember the cartoon “Captain Caveman?”
I’m sure I’m dating myself with this reference, but that was one of MANY cartoon favorites I remember watching growing up in the late 1970s. While that image and the memories it triggers bring a smile to my face and thoughts of, “Captaiiiinnnnnnn Caaaaaaaaveman,” the thought I had today related to cavemen and cavewomen is not so funny.
It struck me today that we are living in the era of digital cavemen and cavewomen. Perhaps it is because I’ve had several opportunities in the last two months to lead professional development workshops with teachers who ALL have laptops that I’ve become more frustrated with the exclusive reliance by students on analog tools in professional learning settings. Perhaps the cognitive dissonance invited by experiencing unfiltered Internet access at home in the United States, followed by filtered access courtesy of the Chinese government, followed by even more severe content filtering courtesy of an Oklahoma school district, has me rethinking some ideas? I’m not sure.
Today the thought trigger concerned VLANs, or “virtual LANs,” which are created on computer networks to segment access rights and protect resources. For some time, I’ve been encouraging school leaders to architect their networks with VLANs to both protect critical resources (like student information system data files) from unauthorized access by students or other “guests” on the network, as well as provide differentiated content filtering for teachers vis a vis students. Most school districts I work in currently filter/censor Internet content for kindergarten students the same way content is filtered for classroom teachers. Literally, certified, professional teachers are trusted (in most school districts) as little as a kindergarten student is on the network. This is ridiculous. If a school district already has teachers logging in to active directory or another authentication system, it is fairly straightforward to implement a content filtering scheme which provides teachers with more open access to Internet websites than that provided for students or guest users on the network. I know of a few school districts in Oklahoma with the progressive vision to be implementing this type of differentiated content filtering presently. Many school leaders I meet with, however, agree that in principle the idea sounds good but it isn’t something they currently can do or are doing.
The reason, I realized today, is because we are living in the era of the digital caveman. Digital technologies have grown and changed so quickly in the last ten years, the “mindware” of school leaders has in many cases failed to keep pace. Internet access for the 21st century classroom is an essential utility. Like electricity, pure running water, heating and air conditioning, fast Internet access should be considered a given for the classroom environment. I am more aware than ever that for many students and teachers in the world, none of the aforementioned services are “givens” in the educational environment. Consider the Liberian Renaissance Education Complex and other schools in Liberia. Consider the Costa Rican elementary school a friend of mine, along with his wife and students at her Oklahoma high school, are helping equip with computer technology for the first time since the school just got electricity. Consider the public schools in China I heard about last week on our trip to Shanghai, which not only lack electricity but also lack a library of books for students to read. I realize that as an owner of an iPhone, a user of multiple laptop computers, and other types of technologies as well as services which I take for granted I am part of a small minority on our planet. Certainly there should be a higher priority placed on providing food, clothing, clean water, basic sanitation and electricity to the people of the world rather than Internet access for students in the midwest of the United States.
It’s easy for me to lose perspective on that idea, however, and perhaps I have this week thinking about Internet access and our present “cave days” with digital technologies. I do not know what the actual number is, but I’d estimate less than 10% of the school districts in Oklahoma have school networks with VLAN architecture. I think 100% of public schools in Oklahoma now have computer networks installed, but only a small fraction of those have designed and are maintaining their networks in ways that are readying themselves for the 1 to 1 digital future. NewNet66 consortium schools may be an exception to this perception about VLANs and network architecture, I know some are. The majority, however, do not seem to have an appropriate regard for the importance of reliable, ubiquitous, fast Internet access which is empowering for learner communication and creativity.
Perhaps these views make it sound like I drank some kool aid recently. No, I have not joined a bandwidth cult. Yes, of course I work for a company whose bread and butter is bandwidth, but I don’t think the opinions I’m expressing here are rooted in an unconscious or conscious desire to promote a corporate agenda. I think my sentiments stem more from my own experiences in learning with digital technologies, in wanting to help others learn with digital technologies, and being frustrated facing so many obstacles to experiencing “flow” in a School-based digital environment. In order to do that, I have to be on an unfiltered, consumer high-speed Internet connection.
I wonder how my own children will regard this era in which they are growing up, where Internet access in formal learning environments is so sharply restricted in so many U.S. public schools? At home, my two oldest children are regularly using wireless, laptop computers for entertainment on Webkinz and Club Penguin as transparently and adeptly as they use the television remote control or the door to the refrigerator. My 9 year old has amazed us all with his adept skills in regularly recording episodes of Avatar, NOVA ScienceNOW, and other shows he enjoys on our DVR. My children eat, drink, sleep, laugh, play outside, play on the Internet with wireless laptops, and bend our DishDVR to their will (thereby avoiding the influence of almost all television commercials, which they only see in fast-forward mode) in natural ways which encourage me to rethink my aversion to the term “digital native.”
I think my own kids will look back with amazement at the first decade of the twenty-first century, and shake their heads at the slow, underpowered digital devices we used to access and share ideas across the globe. I think they’ll be amazed to think how ridiculously locked down networked computing environments were in most places designated for formal learning (to which they had access in U.S. public schools) in 2007.
As I drove to eastern Oklahoma this evening for another E-rate seminar tomorrow, I was trying to think of a metaphor for how my expectations of empowered, engaged learning have been changing. The best one I could come up with involved walking, riding on a horse, and driving a car.
In the days when real cavemen and cavewomen walked the earth, before the first wave, everyone walked. It was not just natural, it was the only way to get around. At some point, humans figured out how to domesticate and ride certain kinds of animals. Much, muuuccchhhh later, the automobile was invented. Roads and highways were constructed, and basic assumptions about the speed with which people could and did travel changed in a relatively short amount of time.
Once you have traveled down an Interstate highway at 75 miles per hour, it can be a challenging experience to walk or hitchhike cross country. I’m not talking about going on a short walk, I’m talking about going on a LONG walk. My chronology here is really choppy and incomplete I know, I think trains were the first type of industrial technology to fundamentally change people’s perceptions of traveling speeds. When Steve Goodman wrote the City of New Orleans and sang about traveling 500 miles before the day was done, that feat was unthinkable before the era of planes, trains, and automobiles. The modern industrial era has completely changed our perceptions of speed and acceptable delays when it comes to cross country travel.
All of this being said, there is a strong “anti-speed” part of me which yearns for long trips. As we flew to China about two weeks ago in the mere space of 18 hours, I wondered what the trip would have been like on a trans-Pacific ocean voyage. Certainly it would have been LONG. It also would have probably been unpleasant in ways I did not consider. We didn’t think about taking a boat to China this month, because our fundamental assumptions about travel and speed are different than those of people living in a pre- or early industrial era.
Similar to those changed perceptions about travel and speed, I think my own perceptions about digitally connected learning are changing my own basic expectations for education. After teaching multiple groups of teachers and students in 1:1 learning environments, where every learner has his/her own laptop computer, I don’t want to go back to a purely analog learning context. Face to face, synchronous and interactive learning can be WONDERFUL, but I want to always have the option of a digital communication modality. The option to extend a conversation online, in an asynchronous forum. The chance for EVERY learner to explore the digital ether and CREATE in uncharted, digital spaces.
I sometimes romanticize about what it would be like to travel back in time in North America when bison by the millions roamed free on the unfenced prairie. Having the perceptions I do now about speed and transportation, however, I think I would find many aspects of that time travel experience to be mentally challenging. If I was to step back in time and accompany Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, I’m sure parts of that experience would be thrilling…. MUCH of it would be unpleasant, however, and I wonder how I would deal with the slow pace of travel? Perhaps not well.
We’re living in the era of the digital caveman and cavewoman. Our kids are hardly going to be able to believe how slow information and ideas were allowed to travel in many of our U.S. Schools in the early 21st century.
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history, liberia, thirdwave, bison, lewisandclark, exploration, speed, caveman, cavewoman, slow, education, school
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On this day..
- First HAM Radio Club Meeting – 2022
- Deepening our Learning Through Storytelling: creativity, STEM and stories – 2011
- Google SketchUp Workshop (Sept 2011) – 2011
- A Real Tipping Point? Vision for Individualized Learning in Maine – 2011
- This is a big map! (Giant Traveling Maps from National Geographic) – 2011
- The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester – 2011
- Giant Traveling Maps project from National Geographic – 2011
- Google in Education and Chromebooks (Sept 2011) – 2011
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- iCarly inspires The Zebra Print – 2010
Comments
10 responses to “Living in the era of the digital cavemen and cavewomen”
Good to see your post about “City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman. He often doesn’t get his due. Thought you might be interested in an eight-year project of mine that has come to fruition — an 800-page biography of Goodman published in May, “Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.” The book delves deeply into the origin of “City of New Orleans.” Please check my Internet site below for more info on the book. Just trying to spread the word. Feel free to do the same!
Clay Eals
1728 California Ave. S.W. #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958
(206) 935-7515
(206) 484-8008
ceals@comcast.net
http://www.clayeals.com
Roger Schank wrote about Cave Man yesterday in The Pulse: Education’s Place for Debate (Cave Man Didn’t Have Classrooms)
http://districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48341
I think you are severely stretching the meaning of “Luddite” in the context used in this post.
Clay, how amazing you found this post and commented on it. I loved listening to your recent interview on WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane as a downloaded podcast last night, as I drove from Oklahoma City to Durant, Oklahoma. It is a small, flat world. Thanks SO much for your work writing this biography and working to share as well as preserve the musical contributions of Steve Goodman. I LOVE the song “City of New Orleans” but was most familiar with Arlo Guthrie’s version of it. Because of hearing your interview about your biography of Goodman I’ve bought Arlo’s version of the song from iTunes as well as Steve’s 1973 album “Somebody Else’s Troubles.” I love folk music and hadn’t really known about Steve Goodman, although I knew some of his songs. Now I’ll be listening to his songs and count myself a real fan. I’ll check out your book next time I’m at Barnes and Noble! 🙂
Gary, thanks for that reference to Roger’s post. You’re right, I’m really stretching my use of “luddite” in this post. I changed that term to “anti-speed” in the post, which is a more accurate adjective to my context and meaning. I linked that term to Carl Honore’s book “In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed.” Thanks for keeping me straight!
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI love folk music and hadn’t really known about Steve Goodman, although I knew some of his songs. Now I’ll be listening to his songs and count myself a real fan. I’ll check out your book next time I’m at Barnes and Noble! […]
I just have a couple of questions…
1. From the post [After teaching multiple groups of teachers and students in 1:1 learning environments, where every learner has his/her own laptop computer, I don’t want to go back to a purely analog learning context]. I heard in a recent podcast you are teaching elementary age in your Church’s Sunday School. Are you able to integrate technology there? I’d be interested in a couple of examples of what you do.
2. Do you think the schools will ever catch up with modern technology? Or even become early adopters or pioneers using modern technology for educational purposes? Or do you think schools will always lag behind, having to be dragged forward? If you believe that shcools will become pioneers, what do you think will be the catalyst for this change?
(Sorry, that’s more than 2 questions!)
Either my school is very forward thinking or I have major pull but all I have to do is talk to the tech person at our school if a website is blocked to get it unblocked. I really wanted Youtube and they unblocked it for me. My class has our own Youtube page, blog, wiki etc. I really feel that I could get any site that I wanted. Now I just need every student to have a computer(in school preferably) and I can truly transform my classroom into a 21st century one.
Check out my website here: http://teacherweb.com/IA/HarlanCommunityHighSchool/MrBruns/
Check out the student Newsblog here: http://hchsnews.blogspot.com/
And the new thing that is going over extremely well and is a very powerful tool is the message board I have set up for my current events students. Talk about a great tool that extends learning outside of the classroom: http://mrbruns.proboards102.com/index.cgi?board=general
Great site as I have been coming here for awhile and listening to you podcast. I wanted to know that many of the things that I have incorporated into what I do have come from you and Will Richardson. Thanks!
I really enjoyed this post, and I can’t put my finger on why. You have a really marvelous voice in your podcasts, and this post had that same great “voice” in it. Sorry for the vagueness.
On the more analytical side, I hear what you are saying about the different Internet we have at home and in school. I segment my Internet usage into work and home because of the blocking.
Miguel Guhlin recently had a post about Fort Worth ISD where teachers are forbidden to use laptops/internet for personal purposes. How do I divide out my personal and professional use? Is this blogging personal or professional? Even when I am working on my family blog http://alicemercer.edublogs.org, I am using tools like Animoto so I can try them out (even though the will likely be blocked in my district, it gives me some ideas for Movie Maker, etc.) This seemed ridiculous to me.
Thanks for the kudos on “voice.”
Some administrators in my old school district, Lubbock ISD, have formally told teachers similar things about school laptops for personal use– that is a “no-no.” I think in the context of technology integration, it is ridiculous to prohibit teachers from all types of personal technology use. Doing so is essentially guaranteeing that purchased technology won’t get used for creative, pedagogically innovative projects on a broad basis in the school district. That philosophy also flies in the face of extensive research like ACOT. Of course, people have different visions of what teaching and learning mean, and this is a manifestation of how that philosophy plays out in terms of school district mandates. Those who believe knowledge is delivered rather than constructed are likely to oppose constructivist uses of technology on many fronts, and oppose creativity/innovation and instead attempt to enforce centralized mandates for uniform education.
My recommendation is to separate uses of technology which are for PROFIT / personal financial gain from those uses which are instructional/professional and for non-commercial personal use. I heard someone discuss the other day how ridiculous the insistence from some school district administrative teams is that ALL email be for strictly professional uses. We don’t see school districts (as far as I know) enforcing the same expectations and code of conduct when it comes to school phones. If we did, could a teacher make a phone call to their home to tell their spouse they are running late today? Could they call their own child’s school to discuss a matter not related to their own job and instructional or administrative requirements?
Because IT departments and school administrators CAN track and enforce with greater levels of authoritarian control using technologies, many are tempted to do so. The mere availability of a technology which can monitor or track behavior does not correspond to every use of that technology being ethical, moral, or desirable.
If you are in a school district that is pushing a hard line on the personal vs professional use of technologies, I would strongly encourage you to consider purchasing your own laptop that you can use freely as you want. I do understand why most school districts “lock down” applications and desktops on Windows-based computers for teachers: the prevalence of malware and their associated security risks for both personal information and network security is formidable. The dynamics here are unfortunate: A more hostile, networked security environment has forced those responsible for IT in schools to take an even more conservative and controlling approach to protect district resources (including the network,) and a culture emphasizing high-stakes, punitive testing has also called into question any instructional practice which suggests creativity, project-based work, or other constructivist teaching strategies. So teachers are clearly in a bind.
Teachers DO need to comply with school district mandates or risk losing their jobs. If you’re working in an oppressive school culture when it comes to creative computing uses, my top recommendation is to purchase and use your own laptop which you can utilize without oversight/management from the district’s IT department (Be smart and keep AV/firewall software installed and updated on it if you choose to run WinXP or Vista. I think a smarter choice is running a less malware-prone OS like Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Linspire, or another Linux variant.) Of course, a school IT department anathema to personal teacher use of school-purchased laptops may oppose teachers bringing personal laptops to school. This entire discussion is a big issue that warrants more than a blog comment. Thanks very much for raising this issue and posing this question. I hope these ideas are helpful.
What do others thing about this?
Kent: Those are great questions and I’ll take them up in upcoming posts and/or podcasts. Yes, I am able to integrate technology in several ways teaching 5th grade Sunday school this year, in fact I’m getting my lesson finalized for this morning right now! I’ll elaborate in more detail later. On the “catch up” question, for now I’ll say I think this will remain a continuing challenge, but the biggest issue is encouraging school learning cultures which are open to new ideas and new tools. Many times teachers as well as administrators allow fear to control or at least direct many of their attitudes as well as actions when it comes to new teaching tools and ideas, like technology. A school learning culture supportive of new ideas, innovations, and well-planned/supported experiments in learning is a key ingredient for “staying up” as best we can with new developments in technologies, I think.