Reflecting on Davidson and Goldberg's 'The Future of Thinking'

I am usually conflicted when discussing issues related to digital technology in the classroom. As a student, I have benefitted from the use of digital technology in the classroom; at the same time, I have experienced powerful educators who were highly effective at traditional lecture void of digital technology.

Reflecting on Davidson and Goldberg’s The Future of Thinking: Learning Institution in a Digital Age causes me to think about some of the issues related to the use of technology in the classroom. For Davidson and Goldberg, the educational institution is a “mobilizing network.” Here, the digital age has opened the potential for the educational moment to happen at any moment under multiple contexts outside of the traditional classroom or within the context of the traditional lecture.

Further, Davidson and Goldberg suggest that the use of digitized technology "de-familiarize[s] ways of knowing. They write, “It [de-familiarization] means rethinking not only what knowledge we possess but how we possess it, from what sources, and what that body of knowledge actually means, what it is worth. It means moving beyond our comfortable world of peers and all the tokens of esteem, value, respect, and reward that that world holds” (36).

While the digital age has provided the possibility for the revolution of education, Davidson and Goldberg show how disparities in digital access persist in many parts of the U.S., which function as barriers to the potential of mobilizing the educational space. Along with these disparities, the attitudes against digital technology also prevent this mobilization from happening.

While the authors discuss the possibilities of mobilizing education in a digital world, I am a bit apprehensive about the reliance of completely digitizing the education process.

For instance, Davidson and Goldberg write,

“Sometimes this mode of relational reading might draw us completely away from the original text, hypertextually streaming us into completely new threads and pathways across the information highways and byways” (54).

How does digitized, relation-reading affect reading comprehension and the close reading process? Is it possible to reinforce close reading strategies when one is reading the hypertext? I would like to see how the authors address these questions. Even more, I am interested in how “self learning” in a digitized world is influenced by the subject matter. For instance, students that I have surveyed on this issue usually find many benefits to digital technology in the classroom, but also express the importance of face-to-face interaction and actual engagement with the physical text in the literature classroom.

As an instructor, I have used YouTube and Facebook to “remix” the text. At the same time, I have used traditional approaches to teach this information too. While integrating technology in the classroom has proven to be beneficial, I have difficulty relying on technology for delivering the entire semester on the computer, especially in a literature course, without any physical contact with my students. This challenge leads me to question, is it the goal to use digital technology to replace traditional approaches to teaching or is it the goal to integrate digital technology with traditional methods of teaching?