The Shallows Reflection

The subtitle of Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows seeks to explain the answer to the BIG question on many people’s minds: What is the Internet doing to our brains? Is it making us smarter? Is it “dumbing” us down? Does it make our lives easier? I’ve always heard those who love the Internet, and technology in general, talk about how great it is and how much better life is with it. On-the-flip-side, I’ve also heard many people who dislike the Internet or who are not familiar with it curse it as if it were the worst invention in the history of mankind. Personally, I have always found myself “somewhere in the middle”. I enjoy a walk in the woods and laying on the couch reading a good book as much as I enjoy finding new helpful school websites and keeping up with friends on Facebook. I’ve always thought that I’ve enjoyed “the best of both worlds” as Hannah Montana sings it so fittingly. As I read, I was really enlightened by the actual research done in this area.

Roots of Computer Culture:

I enjoyed reading in Carr’s book about the lineage of the printed word from the time “they’d scratch their marks on anything that happened to be lying around…to prepared tablets of clay… to scrolls … to the wax tablet…to the book” (Carr, 2011, p. 58-60). I wonder if people from those times were either as apprehensive or excited as people are today with the introduction of the newest gadgets. I also wonder if their responses were even more exaggerated than those of people today since the duration of time between their new ways of writing were fewer an farther between.

As I began reading chapter 1 of Carr’s The Shallows, I began to think about the computer trail in my own life. I found it quite familiar and comforting as he described his home from his “early years” with the “bulky mustard-yellow telephone affixed to the wall of our kitchen, with its rotary dial and long coiled cord” (p. 11). Growing up in the late 1970s and early 80s, we too, had a mustard-yellow telephone in our kitchen along with a bright orange counter top and a ketchup-red sink. A computer? What was that? What would you do with one in your house?

In my later elementary years, maybe fourth grade on, we were mesmerized by the computer game, The Oregon Trail. During those same years, one of my friends from a fairly “well-to-do family” had an Apple computer and we could decorate a house and dress a person. I remember that was the only thing I wanted to do at her house. In an eighth grade exploration class we were able to use the computers. We had to learn about the parts of a computer and memorize the terminology. I can still remember our teacher saying, “Computers are not for games.” By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was taking “Keyboarding” rather than “Typing”. Around Christmas time of my sophomore year my parents purchased our first family computer. Since I’ve been on my own, I’ve owned five used computers and now a new laptop. Both of my children (14 & 8 years) have used computers in their rooms and earlier this year they both got Internet access. Just recently, my husband, son, and I all purchased smartphones. – It makes me stop and gasp a little when I think about it, when I was my son’s age; my family didn’t even own a computer. Now he’s in a house with four computers and three smartphones.

Required Skills of the Digital Age (Inhabitants & Natives):

When thinking of the skills required for one in the digital age, I think that the answer really depends upon the person and his or her needs and desires.

For children today, who have never known any other “age”, technology is their way of life. I’ve already had my children helping me with technology issues. For people who have been around before the “digital age” was big, it takes either a yearning or a need for technology.

I think that having an open mind and a positive outlook about he Internet will help those people be more accepting of the Internet and it’s capabilities. However, no matter who the user is, young or old, they need to have self-discipline when it comes to the Internet; not everything posted is true and pure. I liked the quote, “The easy way may not always be the best way, but the easy way is the way our computers and search engines encourage us to take” (Carr, 2011, p. 218).:

Schools Adjusting to the Digital Age:

Technology is a huge aspect of schools today. Even as I think back to my first year of full-time teaching eleven years ago, technology (meaning computers and the Internet) was always there. But, boy has it changed since then! When I began teaching, my first classroom in a parochial school had two computers and a couple “electronic learning toys.” Now in a public school in a larger city eleven years later I have a SMARTBoard, one stationary computer, two ipod touch devices, and a flip video camera, as well as access to several laptops, an ipad, an ELMO, digital cameras, and a newer document camera (I’m sure there’s more, but you get the point). Today with school choice, I’ve heard a lot of districts comment that they need to keep current with the latest and greatest trends in order to keep the students they have as well as lure others from nearby districts. The schools that can’t keep up with the 21^st century technology may soon (if they haven’t already), see a decline in enrollment and eventually the closing of their doors.

However, having the latest and greatest does not make one school superior over another. I believe that it is really the teachers, staff, and the school vision as a whole that really makes a school great. Teachers who know when to incorporate technology and when not to do so are those great teachers. Since the beginning of my undergraduate studies, differentiation and learning styles have been referred to. If I always use electronic stories (books on tape, TumbleBooks.com, etc.) I’m forgetting about my students that need actual books in their hands or even those who need to act out the stories in order to better comprehend them. I need to make sure that I am presenting my students with a vast variety of experiences that will suit their variety of needs.

I currently teach in a small rural school that is part of a larger district. In the past six years of my employment there, we have seen our enrollment drastically decline as well as another rural school in the district. (I do not believe this is due to a lack of technology advancements as we have the same tools as the city schools do.) There have been several discussions as to what to do with the declining enrollments and unfortunately; closing the schools has been heavily discussed. I was quite interested in the study done by a team of University of Michigan researchers. Their studies concluded, “Simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increases in cognitive control. Spending time in the natural world seems to be of “vital importance” to “effective cognitive functioning.”” (Carr, 2011, p. 219-220). As I read about this study, I wanted to know more. I would like to research it further and present it to our administration to emphasize the benefits of a rural school setting.

Final Thoughts:

“There is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse” (Carr, 2011, p. 21). We need to be cognizant with the ways we are using or not using our brains.

Reference:

Carr, N. (2011). The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains. New

York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.