THE GREAT DEBATE:

          RENOVATORS vs. INNOVATORS

                                  by

                        Albert L. Weeks

  

        In the posthumous praise for the amazing ingenuity of the late Steve Jobs,  the debate about the effects of electronic gadgetry upon people's thought processes was largely overlooked.

       Also tabled was the old debate between Renovators, i.e., those who support rejuvenating old-style learning in the schools, vs. the Innovators, i.e., those who are gung-ho for using electronic aids, or "apps," in classroom learning or at home. This discussion percolates in the background. The debate can be expected to escalate in the future as education-nation asserts itself rightful place in national intercourse in the coming election bouts.

        We have long since entered the "Wired Age." Schools use laptop computers and Kindles to teach science and other subjects. Likewise, after school, youngsters spend half their time using IT gadgetry whether iPods, iPads, iTunes, or 'puter games, meaning especially those inventions proudly innovated by Mr. Jobs.          
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           Today the majority of American families engage in electronic texting via graphics adn animation-adorned cell phones, or they watch their kids playing computer games that some psychologists deem harmful to their young psyches. Although that is debatable, too. Meanwhile, the Renovator-vs.-Innovator debate heats up, especially among educators. Also involved in the discussion are ophthalmologists and psychologists.

        In a recent article in the "Russian Newsweek," Itogi, Nina Vazhdayeva canvassed the several issues concerning electronic gadgetry as used today in Russian schools. She quoted educators (recall that Russians are no slouches at educating their kids in science--remember the fallout after Sputnik?) as well as ophthalmologists on the use of electronic-reader books as school texts as well as students' overall enthrallment with electronic gadgets. The consensus was, first, that such small, electronic monitors are hard on children's developing eyes. Second, educators and psychologists have found that reading is "squinched," or stunted, when students peer at images through monitors on a glistening electronic book. It was discovered that in that electronic form such readers do not assimilate the entire page or piece that they are reading.

         A recent issue of the weekly supplement Parade, in an article titled "Generation Wired," complained about overuse of electric media by youngsters. The writer, one Ms. Hanoch Piven, noted how parents do not sufficiently monitor such gadgetry as used by their teens and pre-teens sons and daughters, boys being more distracted by them than girls. With the result that homework is left undone while U.S. achievement in education lags behind industrialized countries worldwide.

         Moreover, as some psychologists contend, young people fail to learn how to speak (known as their "communication skills") preferrimg, instead, to punch out ASCII ciphers.

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These they send to peer correspondents,  known as when "texting" electronically whether in chatrooms or via cell phones.  Too, as Parade writer Piven notes, "Forty percent of kids in middle school and high school say that when they're on the computer [but not necessarily doing creative word-processing.--ALW], most of the time they are plugged into other media." These include Steve Jobs' gimmicks like iTunes.

          Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, classifies electronic gadgetry as addictive in harmful ways since, she says, texting stimulates "dopamine brain cell neurotransmitters associated with feelings of pleasure." Which in turn can convert a youngster into an electronic-gadget addict. About which parents complain these days.
          Still, other educators observe that use of machines by way of, say, teaching math can actually be stimulating to otherwise bored students. This writer, a retired professor, has examined animated aids for learning calculus, even for learning the Chinese language. He finds them to be generally helpful, as many educators will testify and as mentioned in Itogi. At the same, probably most educators believe that reading traditionally-printed books still remains the best way to assimilate knowledge and undestanding as well as maximize pleasure in reading. (Newspaper readers--between those who read their news electronically online vs. those who page through a hand-held newspaper--will probably remain divided on the matter of preference.)

         Yet even at the college level, students in some cases react negatively to wired learning. One educator, quoted in Parade, says that his students "feel really bombarded [and] are not sure they're learning effectively [nor] are they sure how to turn it all off. We need," he continues, "to learn from what they're saying and show our current teenagers as well as younger kids how to disconnect."                                                                   
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    Such advice to "disconnect" was not something that would have particularly concerned Steve Jobs. Which is understandable. By analogy, should pharmaceutical companies be concerned that some people overuse pharma drugs and thus the companies should regret they ever invented such drugs? The tangible profits and the inventor's self-satisfaction and praise earned from such lucrative innovation in the marketplace, after all, are what count in the public eye.

        Meantime, the Renovators of older values, customs, and learning techniques in the schools will perforce take a back seat. When they do, they're likely to find some company: Youngsters in the back of class bent over fingering their gadgets.