On the topic of technology, there is a link to a review essay titled, "Is Stupid Making Us Google?" by James Bowman, published The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society.
In his review of several articles and books on the dumbing down of society and how students are increasingly unskilled at reading anything deeply, Bowman addresses the implicit operating value that learning must be fun:
But they are not likely to get either one so long as so many educators cling as they do now to the axiomatic belief not just that “learning can be fun” but that it must be fun, and the equally axiomatic rejection of that which may cause pain and humiliation, even if these are productive of real learning.Bowman asks: what are the products of frustration and discipline in learning that are different than the products of skimming and assembling?
The essay is a thought-provoking meditation on the habit of reading online to avoid reading in the tradtional sense and cites several recent sources on electronic culture and its impact on knowledge in an age of information-gathering.
Just some food for thought.
-Holly White
