"Final Exam" Part 3

3. In educational settings, discuss how technology enhances the teaching and learning environment. What do the viewpoints of Dewey, Bruner, Elliott, McLuhan, and Eisner provide for our consideration when thinking about technology, performing arts, and the process of teaching and learning.

Dewey’s theory of inquiry is particularly interesting to me with regards to technology and education. As I tried to come up with a connection between the two, I started with the thought that perhaps technology is actually hurting the process of thought and gaining knowledge. If technology makes things too easy, there are no obstacles for the learner to overcome and from which to cull knowledge. I’d like to suggest, instead, that technology actually provides more opportunities for adaptation and therefore learning. With the deluge of information presented to students daily on the internet and television among other things, they now must be much more selective of the information they choose. They are learning by becoming more discriminating. They must adjust to a certain frequency of information and decide on what to ignore. Students can test hypotheses in any number of ways, but they must be sharp enough to choose the ones to test.

Bruner says, “How one conceives of education, we have finally come to recognize, is a function of how one conceives of culture and its aims, professed and otherwise.” Today, we truly live in a global society. Of course, technology has made this possible, but one concern is that we are moving toward a world culture that is more homogenized because of it. Linguists considered this question as television became ubiquitous in American homes. Would constant exposure to the dominant standard American dialect on television push most other dialects aside? Research has shown that the gap between dialects is staying the same or widening (A great book on the subject is Do You Speak American?, by Robert MacNeil, William Cran, Robert McCrum). It seems that people fiercely protect their dialects and wish to preserve them. We can apply Bruner’s ideas to a similar situation in education and encourage students and teachers to discuss and celebrate the cultural and historical differences that make us unique. An understanding cultural ideas and social contexts will help integrate education into the expectations of the culture and community.

As we have more and more access to music authoring and publishing technology, Elliot’s “multidimensional” approach becomes a reality. In an earlier blog entry, I wrote about creativity blossoming from availability of technology. It is especially fitting that in this era of point and click music making that Elliot places just as much importance on educated amateurs as he does on professionals. I think a more general knowledge and acceptance of basic musicianship will be increasingly valuable in education if we can support its development.

As I started this class, I was worried that I wasn’t going to learn anything new. I had experience building websites and working with Audacity, and I didn’t know much else about what the course would go into. However, it turned out that I’ve gained extremely valuable skills and knowledge because instead of just learning the skills and regurgitating the material, I was able to find new pathways and internalized the skills for life. I don’t find myself looking up bits of code like I used to do—I really speak the language now. Mcluhan encourages us to move past seeing the obvious. If we can get students to speak the language of learning—stop doing things by rote, stop cramming for tests—and pick up learning’s natural rhythm, they will gain skills for a lifetime.

Eisner’s idea that the arts should inform the practices of education are very significant to me. I am often asked, with noticeable disdain, what I plan on doing with my undergraduate degree in musical theater. People tend to think that music degrees are “useless” or just “fun degrees” and that they can’t be applied outside of the performing arts. But I will never regret getting a performance degree. I truly believe that I have received a more well-rounded education than I could have done studying anything else. I look at Eisner’s philosophy as a “while life” philosophy—music has informed everything I do from brushing my teeth (really! Ask me about it!) to singing on a stage. Why shouldn’t it have the same effect on a education at any level. Music is communication—the arts are all forms of communication—and being able to communicate using such fine tuned skills has made me a better philosopher, problem solver, and human being.