The vast majority of Americans, at least aged twelve and older, are plugged into the world in a fashion no earlier generation experienced. We, almost all of us, have more computing power in our pockets than broke the Enigma code, developed the atomic bomb, sent the Apollo rockets to the moon, or controlled the Space Shuttles. And that power is linked to the rest of the world, for many of us, literally twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, Christmas, Passover, Ramadan and Diwali (yep, I had to Google that)<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All of that connection empowers us in many ways. When a technical question arises: \u201cWho is that Senator from Louisiana\u201d, or \u201cWhat goes into a Low Country Boil,\u201d we no longer rush to the books or the library. We literally (verbally) ask our pocket-boxes, and instantly it reaches out across space and time to gain the answer. My Dad in his later years used my Mom as his \u201cexternal hard drive\u201d. His own memory was \u201ccorrupted\u201d by strokes; there were years that no longer were \u201caccessible\u201d, so she served as his \u201cbackup\u201d for names, dates, and events he knew he should have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, for a lot of us, there\u2019s a pocket-box to serve that role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask a middle or high school teacher what the most distracting thing is in their classroom, and invariably they \u201ccall out\u201d the pocket-box.\u00a0\u00a0Every student seems to be \u201ctexting with Mom\u201d all the time.\u00a0\u00a0And while Mom isn\u2019t always at the other end of that conversation, it\u2019s true often enough to raise a whole different question.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pocket-box is a leash as well as a gateway.\u00a0\u00a0The Ronald Reagan line, \u201cTrust but verify\u201d is the mantra for parents today.\u00a0\u00a0Their child is a close as a text, anytime, day or night.\u00a0\u00a0And if they fail to answer, \u201cFind Phone\u201d will give an exact location to their decimal geo-position.\u00a0\u00a0But that child will still take their phone with them, even to an illicit party. Leaving it at home is less likely than forgetting to put on pants.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n That distracting \u201cbox\u201d has changed education.\u00a0\u00a0What in my era was \u201cGet out your slide-rule\u201d (a device for solving mathematical equations that didn\u2019t require batteries)\u00a0<\/em>and then became \u201cGet out your calculator (HP-85 or Bowmar “Brain”),\u201d, now is \u201cGet out your phone\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And that honest teaching phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t know that answer, could someone research that for us?\u201d is now answered in under thirty seconds.\u00a0\u00a0It becomes a race of \u201cpocket-boxes\u201d; digital dexterity tested rather than research prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teaching has adapted.\u00a0\u00a0Notes on a chalkboard (those don\u2019t exist, someone might be allergic to the dust) are only in the movies, and usually in black and white.\u00a0\u00a0The dry erase boards are gone too, with electronic \u201cSmart Boards\u201d the common tool.\u00a0\u00a0Even \u201cpowerpoints\u201d are \u201cway old school\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Since finding facts and performing functions are absolutely accessible, education has become what we once called \u201cgroup work\u201d, now termed \u201ccollaborative learning\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone works together, pooling their resources to accomplish whatever task is assigned.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It enforces socialization, in an era where electronic connectivity perversely creates increased personal isolation.\u00a0\u00a0No one needs a computer, it\u2019s in their pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know the Lincolnian phrase, \u201cFour score and seven years ago\u2026\u201d, eighty-seven years. But it was less than one score, twenty years, from chalkboards to smart boards. Our society is moving literally at the speed of light. Information good or bad, false or true, religiously uplifting or sexually explicit, is completely accessible and totally unrestrained in everyone\u2019s pocket, from children to old men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the era we hardly dreamed of in the 1950\u2019s and 60\u2019s; far beyond Dick Tracy\u2019s wrist radio or the HAL 9000 computer. But all that accessibility does not guarantee veracity. A lie can travel just as fast as the truth, perhaps even faster. In our \u201cpost-truth\u201d world, the \u201cfacts\u201d are determined more by how many people \u201cagree\u201d that they\u2019re true, rather than the actual accuracy. It\u2019s the ultimate \u201cdemocracy\u201d: \u201cthe people\u201d decide \u201ctruth\u201d, true or not. And that choice determines who else they \u201clisten\u201d to on their pocket-box. Their version of \u201ctruth\u201d reverberates and is reinforced. The volume and quantity of repetition is constantly providing \u201cverification\u201d, right or wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our world the truth is \u201ccrowd sourced\u201d. And we restrict our \u201ccrowd\u201d to the truths we want to hear. So all of that accessibility, all of the networking, or as the previous generation called it, \u201cworld-wide webbing\u201d, puts us right back where we were. We listen to who we listen to, we ignore the information we don\u2019t want to hear. What used to be \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d has now become \u201cI don\u2019t want to know\u201d. But the result is still the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens from here?\u00a0\u00a0Maybe we need to ask Facebook.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m sure they will provide the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It will be\u00a0\u00a0whatever answer we want to hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Education<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Adaptation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One Score<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Crowd Source<\/h3>\n\n\n\n