The I-Generation--From Toddlers to Teenagers: A Conversation with Jane M. Healy

This article was really interesting. I thought it complimented the last article we read about the Oregon Trail CD-ROM critique well. They both addressed the point that computers, computer programs, or technology of any sort “do not have the same educational weight as good teachers […]” (Tell). In The I-Generation—from Toddlers to Teenagers: A Conversation with Jane M. Healy, Carol Tell writes about her discussion with Healy, an author and educator, who has been a huge advocate of computers and the latest technology being incorporated into the classroom for over 20 years now. However, her views on educational technology have radically changed as she is now quite cautious of such an integration and dependence.

It was interesting to get a fresh perspective. Not long ago we read Resnick’s Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age, which was all for finding ways to incorporate any and every cutting edge technology into educational settings. I think a lot of the points made were really important for teachers to consider. We have a responsibility to do a little research ourselves. We can’t just trust that because something is advertised as the best, the latest, or a miracle quick fix to a student’s educational struggles, that it is what is most beneficial for them. A good question to ask is if what the child is doing is meaningful enough to be taking up school time. Ask the important questions. “Who is defining the learning? What can we do with this technology in terms of curriculum and learning that we can't do as efficiently by beefing up other more proven methods? Whose mind is really dong the thinking?” The bottom line is that we have a responsibility to teach our students what they need to be successful. Technology can be very useful, but I think we need to be critical and skeptical, for our students’ sake.

The Oregon Trail CD-ROM Critique

Bill Bigelow’s “On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of the Oregon Trail CD-ROM” was a really interesting article. In this game, students become members of families and wagon trains crossing the Plains in the 1840s or 1850s on the way to the Oregon Territory. The objective of the game is to safely reach the Oregon Territory with one’s family, thereby “increasing one’s options for economic success.” This critique suggests however, that as for as much as the game teaches, it mis-teaches more. Bigelow claims The Oregon Trail to be “sexist, racist, culturally insensitive, and contemptuous of the earth.” Just as well, he claims that the game imparts bad values and wrong history.

I remember playing this game back in elementary school. I never thought about how the game I was playing might be misrepresenting women of the time or how it may racist towards African Americans and Mexicans or how it left out the violent happenings between the settlers and Indians. These ideas don’t cross a sixth graders mind. I always had fun playing it and I don’t feel that it was as harmful as this article makes it sound. The times might not be represented fully accurately in this game, but what teacher would allow their children to play a game that is full of violence, hostility, disrespect and degradation towards women, African-Americans, Mexicans and Indians? The article makes a good point though, “we need to remember that CD-ROMs are not teacher substitutes.” The teacher needs to fill the gaps and present the missing information to her students so that they get an accurate idea of how the time was. In the same respect, we must analyze and critique the games we allow our students to play so that we can make sure they are of value in an educational setting. The article presents some wonderful questions for teachers to think about and discuss with their students. “Which social groups are students not invited to identify with in the simulation? How might these social groups frame problems differently than the simulation? What were the social and environmental consequences for the time period following the time represented in the simulation?” I think these are excellent discussion questions that should be considered and talked about.