I had an awesome Tuesday. In fact, I accomplished two things in
one night that I consider to fall in the epic moment category. I had the
opportunity to see Paul McCartney play at Fenway Park. Yeah, I know. And, if
you haven’t already guessed, I am going to present a correlation between this
moment and current technologies, both in education and our daily lives.
But first, a little narrative...
My brother and his wife convinced me late Saturday night that I
must attend and that I would regret not going. They had the opportunity to see
Paul at Fenway in 2009 and recalled that it was an experience of epic proportions.
I didn’t take much convincing. The next day I purchased a ticket. I will never
reveal the price. Ever.
When I arrived at the show, I followed the signs to my section,
B6. I walked down an old, steel staircase that was probably an original piece in
the Fenway construction. At the end of the staircase was an opening. In the
opening I could see the Fenway Green and subtle sunlight peeking through in the
foreground. As I got closer to the door I realised that I was underneath the
left field foul pole. And to the right of it was the Green Monster. Undoubtedly
the most famous left field in all of baseball.
I walked through the door and placed my left hand on the Green
Monster facade. I was touching history. So many great moments happened around
that great wall of baseball. And I was touching it. I continued down to the
field and stood at the foot of the Green Monster and looked up at its
intimidating height. I slapped my hand against it to hear it echo. In this echo
you could hear over one hundred years of heartache and triumph.
But I wasn’t here to see a baseball field; I was here to see a
Beatle. Sir Paul.
I arrived at my seat and waited for the show to begin. My seat was roughly
in the same spot that a left fielder
As Paul finished, “Eight days a Week” I noticed that the phones in
the air persisted. I snapped a few more pictures, but eventually put my phone
away. As I did this, a few things came to mind. Have we gotten to the point
that we attend events simply for others to see? Do we really ever experience an
event if we are only half there, while the other half manages broadcasting on
social media? Can I really say that I saw Paul McCartney if I watched 75% of it
through my iPhone screen?
As these questions traversed through my mind, I briefly reflected
on modern experiences. Who am I here for, myself, or my audience? While I agree
that sharing what we do is, as Dean Shareski put it, “our moral imperative” and
a great way of connecting people to experiences, I find it hard to really
experience a moment, a presenter, or, as Louis CK pointed out, Jesus coming back to tell people everything while I’m playing the role of broadcast
journalist.
“Nobody takes in
life unless it comes through this(referencing his phone)”
-Louis CK, On Conan
O’Brien
So is the above statement true? Are we missing out on life,
nature, and people while immersed in the world of social media, real-time
reporting, and on demand conversations? Similarly, are some of our students
missing out on learning important skill sets or the experience of getting lost
in a book because they are seeing it all through a digital lens? Would I have
been able to compose such a detailed recollection of my epic Tuesday night had
I been glued to my phone’s screen? Or, am I doubling my experience by engaging
my mind in two worlds at once?
This is the conversation I would like to evolve, and that needs to
happen about technology in the classroom. Let’s move the rhetoric away from
which device is better and how kids can use social media to change the
world, to how can we leverage new and emerging
technologies to enhance and amplify student learning while experiencing, absorbing and processing the ride.
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