Week 5: Is Knowledge Obsolete?

           In the past several weeks, I have spent a great deal of time reading articles and other resources in which experts claim that technology is the wave of the future.  Those of them who use it in their classrooms will succeed, while those who do not utilize technological innovations will not.  For this week, I watched a video by Sugata Mitra, in which he showcases the advantages of using technology even for those students who have never seen a computer before.  They quickly teach themselves how to use the machine, and use the programs within it to teach themselves foreign languages and even advanced biology. 

            While this success rate is astounding, Mitra proposes a very controversial world view.  While it is not outside the norm to say that schools are obsolete, Mitra goes so far as to question if knowing is obsolete.  Although this world view has not been explicitly stated in sources I have read in the last few weeks, many proponents of a classroom centered around the use of modern technology emphasizes how different today’s world is from the past.  There seems to be an undercurrent of feeling in modern education, which holds that technology, is not just a tool but must be at the center of student education.  While it cannot be denied that technological innovations such as tablets and smart phones offer opportunities and tools which had been unavailable in the past to all students, many seem to believe that one cannot be educated extensively without the use of modern technology. 

            As Dr. Ruth Reynard has pointed out, society and employers expect students to be well-versed in both academics and technological skills. While understanding and implementing modern technology is very important, I believe that because technology is a tool, students must possess a fund of knowledge because there will be many instances in which they have limited or no technology at their fingertips.  It is I those instances when there academic knowledge will prove to be most essential and therefore cannot be neglected simply because we possess technology which allows them to forego a deeper expertise.