I have long noticed a wholesale erosion in the ability of many people to hold conversations. This is particularly true of digital natives though by no means limited to them. This opinion piece in the Washington Post reminded me that the pace of technology in general vs. the pace of study into how and when technology should be disseminated presents immense lopsidedness.
If children increasingly become bewitched by internet-channeling gadgets and therefore develop cerebral architecture predominately conducive to interacting with schoolwork in a digital medium, as opposed to physical and verbal mediums, you could not only argue children may then develop lifelong handicaps but that they may become a poisoned pill for human interaction via conversation. Though teacher-centrism is by no means the only component of social epistemic rhetoric, it seems an essential component. Will a significant rise in classroom tech devices erode the value of the teacher? Will the teacher ultimately become a troubleshooter for whatever the publishing company or software company feeds into the devices they’ve doled out? Will the students listen to anything a teacher says? Will a student be able to respond verbally to a question?
It seems to me it’s time for a new variety of ideology or at least an ideological augmentation: techno-transitional rhetoric. In this ideology or rhetorical enhancement, hypothetically, the teacher formulates and executes curriculum designed to bridge classroom oral discourse and learning with all manner of digital learning. I need to give the idea more thought as to whether it could stand on its own or just bolster an existing ideology.
Anyway, not that my tech tool presentation showcased this, but I love to talk. I love conversation. In light of this, some of my favorite movie lines–Kasper Gutman and Sam Spade talking in John Houston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon–are here below (taken from the International Movie Database):
Kasper Gutman: Here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.
Kasper Gutman: You’re a close-mouthed man?
Sam Spade: Nah, I like to talk.
Kasper Gutman: Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking’s something you can’t do judiciously, unless you keep in practice.
[sits back]
Kasper Gutman: Now, sir. We’ll talk, if you like. I’ll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk.
Twenty years from now, adults whose educations have left them in possession of digitally-oriented grey matter, adults who perhaps struggle to speak in sentences, may consider these lines to weird to contemplate.