THERE'S NO APP FOR THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

I interviewed multiple intelligences theorist Howard Gardner recently for The Boston Globe, prior to joining him for a forum about the impact of digital media on the lives of our kids (“Shaping Our Digital World: You Have the Power” sponsored by Common Sense Media and the GoodPlay Project at Harvard Project Zero).  A renowned professor of cognition and education at Harvard, he contends that the transformation of our world by digital media is as radical as the invention of the printing press was in its day, representing a fundamental shift in the way we acquire and process information, as well as impacting how we form and maintain personal relationships. It has had an extraordinary impact on our children, offering tremendous empowerment and access to knowledge as well, unfortunately, as unparalleled
distraction. I asked him about one of my ongoing concerns about our culture’s 24/7 connectivity – how it is totally changing not only how we gather information, but how we process it and what we choose to keep in our memories. He admitted, “Over time, individuals seem to be able to use multiple sources of information agilely, which is good, but [they] may have less patience and less ability to go into things deeply and stay with them, which is not good.” He recounted a telling anecdote. A college student once said to him, “Why go to school, when the answers to all questions are in my smart phone?”  He sagely replied, “Yes, except the important ones.”

Food for thought -- how are we teaching kids about the “important questions?”

To read the full interview, click here.