How would a progressive educator go about implementing proper change in a system that is not generally trusted by the masses? Or a system that the public believes runs rampant with misinformation and remains immoral? Or a fractured institution? What about a system that achieves no common good? This is the struggle progressive educators face with implementing the internet into schools. There is no clear morals to the internet, as anyone with any belief can share their views, no matter how racist, intolerant, despicable, or false the statements may be. That is part of the struggle progressive educators face.
This type of shift has happened before, and it occurred about 120 years ago during the industrial revolution. For educators in that time, they were facing a factory style environment, as families had been industrialized and were lacking a connection with more ‘natural’ skills that had used to be commonplace. Students did not have a ‘real-life’ experience, and schools were the last place to create this, which was eventually adapted into the classroom by educators as a measure of self-preservation and defense.
With how prevalent the internet is, and the wealth of knowledge that comes with it, teachers nowadays are facing a major shift as well. To provide best for their students, teachers need to include technology into their classrooms, even if the internet is a maze of misinformation and information. By not allowing students to use technology, the internet, etc., teachers would be inhibiting their students from succeeding in the real world, as technological literacy is a must. Educators are in a tough, but similar spot as their counterparts in the late 20th-21st Centuries.
So, how do progressive educators implement a system that is as divisive, extremely useful, and important, yet equally dangerous and untrustworthy as the entire Internet? The global network is tricky, for reasons stated previously, and with the internet being a morality battleground, and each province in Canada having their own democratic aspirations as well as their own morals, there is no real cohesive answer as to how to approach this issue. Do school systems censor information, or let students see all of it? Is this morally sound? Is this oppressive? If you ask the internet, there would be a large amount of varying answers.
What is certain, is that we are in the midst of an era of needed change in education. If online literacy is not implemented, our students and next generation will suffer. There is no right way to implement online and technological literacy, as education, curriculum, and teaching is mired by politics and hidden agendas, and in regards to information and the idea of providing limitless amounts of it to students, whether it is good or bad, will be a battle that will unfold in front of educators for quite some time.
This blog post was inspired by Leonard J. Waks essay ‘John Dewey and the Challenge of Progressive Education’ in the International Journal of Progressive Education.