Sunday, May 17, 2009

Re: iphone/itouch

In following the various responses in this thread, I'm wondering if we are doing our students and our parents a disservice by positing this as a technological issue that can be remedied via filtering, as opposed to a critical thinking issue that needs to be addressed via age-appropriate training and education.

Most every kid can walk. They can use their ability to walk to go to good places, bad places, and places in-between, yet no one wants to advocate that kids stop walking.

Obviously, this comparison breaks down in a few ways, but I think it helps illustrate an essential point: using technological interventions to attempt to mediate what are essentially "problems" related to humans having free will misleads about both the reach of technology and the power of free will.

Cheers,

Bill


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