Tools for learning: The 3 R's and technology... and silence?

   We speak of literacy in reading, writing and math. Technological literacy is a new term that I had not considered so explicitly and would like to add it to the traditional list. Having grown up with the advent of the Internet, my ability to use digital technology developed quickly, which has led to a sense or "intuition" about how an unfamiliar technology is designed for my use. My younger siblings and students have an even greater intuition about how new technologies can be used in a variety of ways and contexts.
   According to Marc Prensky, "... today's students.... are native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet" (Cited by Sheskey (2010), p. 200). Their creative thinking is being developed simply by the fact that these things are available to them and by the fact that these things provide gateways to their varying interests. These conditions which have led to this creative thinking seem notable and would bear further consideration about how learning is fostered for a student. As a chemistry teacher, how can I make subject matter, perplexing questions or even just lab materials available for students to begin their own tinkering, manipulating and wondering? How can I make a space available to them in my classroom that would help foster in them familiarity, or better yet, fluency, with scientific practice and thinking?
   Dewey (1897), in "My Pedagogic Creed", discusses the importance of putting a student "in complete possession of all his powers" (p. 2). The four tools, reading, writing, math and technology, must be used to help the student since:

With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently (p. 2-3). 

It's incredible that something written over 100 years ago can be so relevant to education today. My primary and secondary school teachers were, for the most part, what Prensky would identify as "digital immigrants" (Sheskey (2010), p. 200). I believe that I would also fall into that category in comparison with my future students, who didn't experience the advent of the Internet in the same way that I did. How, then, do we prepare students to be ready for whatever is coming in 20 years? A simple answer would be to say that reading, writing, math and technology can't the ends of our education, but the means for the development of the students' minds and sense of self and purpose.
   One other tool that I would like to consider is silence. Maybe literacy doesn't fit the idea of silence in the same way that it fits the four tools already discussed. It seems to me that silence is essential to the learning process because it provides the space for a person to develop awareness of the events occurring around them, to wonder about them and to develop skills to think critically about those events. It also allows for the development of a person's own thinking, separate from the collective. It seems to me that my job as an educator is to provide this space for students to begin to wonder about things, to be able to tinker with ideas in their minds or with objects in their hands, as I talked about earlier, so that their learning becomes personal, reflective and self-motivated.
    There is a need for me to learn how to disconnect from technology and from the distractions that swirl around me constantly in order to become aware of myself and my thinking, of the people around me and their perspectives. Giving the space for students to really wonder and learn through focused practice and experimentation is something that I want to learn how to develop in my own classroom practices, such that reading, writing, math and technology are tools, instead of masters or controls, for their learning.
    I'd like to finish off these scattered, rambling thoughts with two other people's thoughts on the importance of making space for yourself to wonder:

• The Power of Concentration.

and

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References:

Dewey, J. (1897). [My Pedagogic Creed] School Journal, 54, 77-80.

Jacobs, H. H. (2010). Curriculum 21 : Essential education for a changing world. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD).