Finding the balance with introducing digital chaotic elements into the classroom.
As human beings we are wired towards order and chaos. Even in the symbology of Yin and Yang many consider it to be order and chaos where we walk the fine snake shaped line between making order chaotic and chaos ordered.
In our lives we look and are sold the unpredictable as shown in the marketing of travelling. A venture away from our day to day predictable lives.
This dynamic is present everywhere, and it is no different than in the classroom and as learners. Striking the right equilibrium is essential for fostering effective learning environments.
However, in the landscape of education we realise that it has become too ordered and conformative to the point of irrelevance.
Too many tests asking students to vomit knowledge which they are likely never to apply in their lives and teaching methodologies in which their parents and likely their grandparents experienced.
Chaotic elements such as technology and gamification in the classroom can sometimes fall short, as institutions and educators are not equipped nor trained to make the digital chaos ordered.
Are schools too Ordered?
Traditional educational systems often lean towards order and conformity, emphasising structured lesson plans and standardised testing. While this approach ensures a systematic flow of information, it may stifle creativity and hinder the development of critical thinking skills. Learning thrives when there is room for exploration, creativity, and a certain level of controlled anarchy that encourages students to question, experiment, and engage actively in the learning process.
As it stands there is an educational shift occurring. Away from standardised testing and orienting towards Project and Task Based Learning. Not testing what students know, but in how they apply their knowledge. After all, Chat GPT or Goggle Gemini will always know more.
The workplace also prioritises Soft Skills over Hard Skills for the employees it seeks. It would be hard to implement such sort-after innate abilities as Critical Thinking, Emotional Intelligence and Creativity into syllabuses oriented towards a final exam. However, they would slip in quite naturally into curriculums where the assessments of success are projects or tasks.
We have known since the digital dawn of the 90s that education has had to change and adapt. Nevertheless, the question arises, why has it not? And why is there still a heavy dependence on the dogmatic order of standardised testing?
The Anarchy of the Online World
When changing the order we cannot replace it with anarchistic chaos, but something better.
Digital Literacy is very much a sought after skill now. In fact, it was placed as number one in one Linked In Article (The Future of Work: Top 10 In-Demand Skills for 2024
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-work-top-10-in-demand-skills-2024-bluelynx-sw51f?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via) about the ten most sought after skills in 2024. Emphasising the importance of the digitization of the classroom.
However, Digital Literacy is extremely hard to ascertain as it requires concentration and productivity. Yet, in a digital world each individual’s attention is the currency of tech companies.
Over twenty years of teaching I have now seen a trend where students are beginning to resist the allure of technology in their learning, as deep down they know that their attention is unfocused and sought after by tech companies. A student even confirmed this suspicion by stating that she would have the school do away with tablets and ICT altogether in favour of books.
The bright promise of it being the biggest library the world has ever seen has now become a seedy marketplace where our data is sold and our attention is butchered.
With some American states taking Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta company to court, due to the detrimental impact on young people’s health, there needs to be more pressure so that companies do not decode our humanity. Order to the wild west digital chaotic lands needs to take place, as unfortunately the promise of the digital lands and its digital natives has turned many into passive consumers.
Being on the crux of the A.I. explosion we have to ask how we want A.I. to see the human agent. Are we creative learners as Microsoft has labelled its programme “Co-Pilot” to imply or market as such, or are we passive mindless consumers? If we want to be creators it is essential that governments bring order to the digital chaos so that we do not spiral further into a digital black hole. Where we are drip fed our humanity even further. We have already failed the digital native generation by not implementing technological wonders into their learning effectively.
Balancing the Chaos and Order
The question across a lot of fields now is how to make technology sound organic. So that our human voice can still be heard and blend in with the digital noise, and where does our humanity fit in when A.I. can do all the work?
In terms of the classroom we have to identify the set order which is: students learn knowledge for a test or exam; those results define whether they can continue in higher education; that knowledge is rewarded with a diploma or title to prove their expertise. Even though a very simplified watered-down version these ordered markers exist and have to be questioned, analysed and appropriately assessed into how we can introduce digital anarchy so as to better reconstruct and shape a modernised order.
In turn we also have to analyse the chaotic element of technology in learning so as to assess how they can work in harmony.
The digitization of learning has mainly been to digitise books, tests and materials so as to reinforce the outdated order of learning knowledge for an exam with that exam defining the success of the individual.
Unfortunately, this has shown not to work. By making traditional study materials digital it has made it near impossible for students to concentrate and pay attention to something when there is an infinite amount of distraction at their fingertips.
This distraction has to be problem-solved as it has caused a health pandemic of anxiety, stress and lack of creativity that has not aided learning.
How many times have we bought an app thinking it would help us in our productivity only for it to be an unused item on our monthly subscription bills? Technology sells productivity and creativity only for the reality to be passive consumerism. Instagram is an example of how we all dream of having a following of 10,000 yet the reality is that we become an infinite amount of passive scrollers.
Is it the attention of companies to have consumers instead of creators? A logical example is that at the moment Chat GPT’s servers can sometimes be overloaded with requests. This situation will increase with the normalisation of A.I. Hence, in order to keep the servers running, the subscriptions coming and the requests limited, a likely policy could be to intentionally build systems so that there is a healthy ratio of majority passive consumers versus a limited number of creators.
The state of society (mental health issues related to technology) and schools (lack of student content going viral on the internet) would definitely hint to this dark approach.
Therefore, technology has to be regulated before it goes into the classroom. Monitored and trialled to assess whether it helps in learning (providing an improved order) or giving too much of a distraction and causing a storm of anxious-ridden chaos.
I still believe technology and learning can work harmoniously together. Technology bridges the gap between school and the workplace where students can do projects instead of tests that would better reflect the likely workflow they would experience in their professional lives. Projects are also procedural in nature and not immediete like a test result. A.I. can give you an immediate test answer but rarely build the image your imagination desires. There is always editing, refining and a touch of the human hand. Our approach has to be collaborative with A.I. Two agents working together instead of passive actions of coding our A.I. bot, and letting the money roll in while we passively sit back and relax.
Companies have to make authentic campaigns in helping students be more productive and instead of marketed words have hard proof that their apps do help in productivity and creativity in education.
One of the roles of education is to make students fall in love with creative processes and help them find purpose in their work and life.
As it stands in the zeitgeist. Work is seen as for gullible people who do not know how to invest their money, and be effective entrepreneurs who have multiple passive incomes whilst they sit back and travel the world.
Schools need to excite learners with authentic aims and objectives constructed in ordered and structured projects that can help them in their lives, and technology be used as a tool to execute effective aims and objectives. Otherwise, the next generation will continue a passive anxious-ridden coma with technology.
