The debate between Mark Bauerlien and Neil Howe as to whether the millennials have gotten smarter or dumber creates an interesting topic to discuss. There always has been a strong comparison as to where American students rank on international education scales? Both speakers present strong sides of the argument that provide supporting examples of statistics and information for each side. As I watched the video, I felt myself leaning more towards the side of Neil Howe and his belief that this generation is the smartest generation yet.
Bauerlien’s argued that middle and high schoolers lacked in areas of conceptual knowledge and taste. A major point of his argument was that the millennials have enormous advantages, opportunities, and access to tools, but their knowledge and skills show a decline. Bauerlien showed that reading rates have declined because reading is a less meaningful endeavor. He linked this to technology and social networking as the main distraction has caused the students to decline. I argue this point because technology has become a huge resource for classrooms. A large portion of classrooms are now equipped with technology to assist the teacher and students to a higher standard of learning. With the digital age that the students are facing, providing classrooms with this technological support gives teachers and students a connection between their home life full of technology and preparation for the real world.
In my agreement with Howe, his statistics and data is what provided evidence for his argument and convinced me that American students are truly getting smarter. My favorite statement was when he drew the comparison between students of the 1950’s and the students today. We can compare our students to the students of the 1950’s, but we can’t compare the students of the 1950’s to the students of today. He was arguing that you can test to the student’s today disadvantages by using their standards; it is not a fair comparison. He referenced the National Science Fair and National Spelling Bee and two measures of success. Howe stated the entire population I.Q. is higher than it has ever been. Howe said that the information age is causing challenges, but this information age is also providing correlations to previous knowledge and ideas that could not have been referenced. His argument against Bauerlien’s was spot on. His argument the advantages that technology can have pointed to areas that technology can be beneficial such as jobs and information.
Jordan I agreed with your points about Howe and how technology is becoming more and more important but is it hindering students? It may be getting in the way, according to some peopple, but I think it is just the way this generation is learning and developing
ReplyDeleteJordan I agree with you also about Howe being the better argument. I thought Bauerlein's argument about technoogy hindering reading was way off. Being in a Reading and Language Arts classroom for my internship, I saw how my teacher used the technology provided with the Basal readings to keep kids captivated and engaged in what the story was about. I also thought Howe's argument about comparing the generations was very clever. Heaven forbid we compare the older generations against us but they can say whatever they want about us.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you brought up the National Science Fair and National Spelling Bee. I thought that was the most exemplar point Howe possessed. I mean, come on. Cotton gin replica versus a patented project on methanol as an alternative fuel? I only wish we had seen the National Spelling Bee words.
ReplyDeleteI think that technology can be a hindrance or a help, depending on the discipline one observes when using it. If students are guided in class to use it for educational purposes, then by all means, it's beyond beneficial. It's ridiculous to assume that our digital diversions make us less intelligent than previous generations. But I do think it's wise to place limits on the amount of time students use social networking. I think there can be a healthy balance.
ReplyDeleteAnn, I wanted the National Spelling Bee words, too.
Jordan- I agree with your points about how this generation may be the smartest generation yet, I just believe that we need to be careful about we use technology. Bauerlein stated in the video that he believed we were using technology for information retrieval as opposed to building content knowledge. I think that technology enables us to learn and explore information in an amazing way, but as teachers we need to ensure that were are using it in a way that fosters creativity!
ReplyDeleteI agreed with both sides of the argument at different points throughout the clip, but I really felt like Howe made a great point by not comparing the students of the 1950's with the students of today. I saw where you felt the same way. Bauerlein looked at technology as hindering, but a person can make anything negative just as easy as it can be made positive.
ReplyDeleteHere are a Huffington Post article about the hardest spelling bee words from 2011. I am sad to say I don't know them, but I am excited that some of our Millennials do.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/2011-spelling-bee-toughest-words_n_870977.html#s286962&title=12_komatik_
You are right that “a large portion of classrooms are now equipped with technology to assist the teacher and students to a higher standard of learning.” Many classrooms are equipped, but are the teachers equipped? How are they using that technology? Are they using it in a way that allows students to complete meaningful, thought-provoking work? Is the technology just sitting around getting dusty? I have a colleague that uses the Credit Recovery program as part of her usual class curriculum, and I was thinking of doing the same thing. I wanted to learn more about Credit Recovery this summer. However, I was talking to a student that had to complete credit recovery, and she showed me how she “passes” without learning anything. There’s an example of technology not being put to good use. I know there are many examples of how teachers use technology to make learning more meaningful; I personally don’t know what I would do without my laptop, LCD projector, and document camera. However, it is important to remember that just because it is there does not mean it is being utilized effectively.
ReplyDeleteBecause I care about you, here is a list of the Spelling Bee winning words that goes back to 1925.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spellingbee.com/champions-and-their-winning-words
You're welcome!
I do not think the smart or dumb designations help here in this argument. It seems to me they are meant to be incendiary words meant to attract attention to the debate. For me, it's more a matter of this generation has access to technology and information like none before it. What are they going to do to deal with that and then use these advantages as best they can are the big questions for me.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying the debate here though!
I think it would be hard to compare any two generations. Imagine us being compared to our parents? My dad still needs help turning on a computer and can't check his email without his step by step list. Obviously, that might be extreme for people born in the fifties, but it still has some truth to it. Times have changed, we are in an age where technology is advancing rapidly and it should be used. How we use it is the problem.
ReplyDelete