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Titanic Lessons for Educatonal Technology Date: Wed, 9 April 1997 Titanic Lessons for Educational Technology © Ferdi Serim 1997 From the vantage point of 85 years later, the tragic episode of the Titanic's maiden voyage reminds us about technological hubris. The intelligence required to produce such an engineering marvel juxtaposed with the lapses in common sense that contributed to this disaster provide lessons for us, as we prepare to embark on our present journey into technology enhanced learning. One wonders how people 85 years from now will view our current deliberations and decisions with respect to how we deploy and employ the most powerful global communications tool ever devised. In the past 85 years, the development of systems thinking has given us tools of thought that allow us to move beyond the Newtonian "cause and effect" to arrive at a deeper understanding. Systems thinking examines the interrelationships between numerous activities whose interaction over time can be complex and counter-intuitive (as in pubic education). Seen in this light, the Titanic disaster wasn't a failure of technology; it was the predictable result of a system. Everyone knows the story: the "unsinkable" Titanic, monument to the Industrial Age, disregarding warnings, sailed into ice filled waters, struck an iceberg and sank with tremendous loss of life (one person for each word in this essay). From the richest man on earth, to the unlisted immigrant in steerage, frigid death was the fate for all outside the lifeboats. What are the lessons from this system that we can apply to education? Lesson 1: The Unqualified Belief in Technology Can Lead to Hubris Today, we prepare to embark on a voyage from an Industrial based economy to an emerging model that is driven by collaboration, communication and the services that result. Many view education as the determinant: those who "learn how to learn for the rest of their lives" will thrive; those who don't will not survive so well in the chilly waters of the post Industrial world. Technology will equip those who know how to read, write and think with advantages that similarly talented people without competence and confidence in using technology will lack. People in 1912 were awed by the prowess of the Titanic to the degree of hubris that permitted the order to be given to sail "full speed ahead" through icy waters. This order was given by the Titanic's owners to recapture the trophy for fastest crossing of the Atlantic from the Germans in order to secure increased revenue for their venture, and was executed by the captain of the Titanic, who selected a northern crossing which was much shorter than the traditional southerly route used by the mariners for that time year. Incidentally the naval architect who designed the Titanic was on board and went down with the captain and his ship. If we design our technological support of learning without thinking through how to use technology to prepare all learners to read, write and think more effectively, we will have been equally distracted by "pyrotechnology." Lesson: remember the purpose of the voyage - to get everyone safely across, not to set records! Lesson 2: Don't Ignore the Observations of Those Already on the Scene This disaster was completely avoidable. North Atlantic crossings held perils well known to mariners, and firsthand reports of ice conditions had reached the officers of the Titanic earlier in the day. The Titanic had a radio, and both sent and received a steady stream of messages throughout the voyage. However, the "bandwidth" for these messages was reserved for "paying customers," a convenience for the wealthy passengers who treated it as a novelty. In fact, it was in response to annoyed directives from the Titanic that the nearby Californian radio operator shut down for the night, after being told that his warnings about pack ice were "clogging the airwaves", preventing the backlog of paid messages from getting through. Another lesson: public interest and the marketplace require balanced access to communications technologies. Today, classrooms using the Internet for instruction are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet this small proportion of pioneers posesses desperately needed insight to guide those designing the systems being proposed. While the much discussed reluctance of educators to embrace innovation is sometimes used as a rationale for passing over educators' concerns, many educators have much to say about what it takes to learn to introduce technology in order to have any lasting effect on student achievement. Unless we build mechanisms to bridge communications of these considerations between business, government, communities and educators, we will be turning a latter-day version of the deaf ear that permitted the Titanic to maintain its deadly course. Lesson 3: Voyages Are Supposed to Be Two Way People boarded the Titanic for a variety of reasons. For some, "crossing the pond" was old hat, but the status of sailing First Class on the most luxurious liner in the world was an honor not to be missed; for others, a new life beckoned across the Atlantic, and no discomfort would be too great to endure if it brought such promise at the end of a week. Clearly the Titanic was big enough for both classes of people, and clearly it was not designed to sink. However, the failure to provide sufficient lifeboat capacity to assure the safety of all passengers in retrospect provides a glaring statement of underlying beliefs about the relative cost/benefit ratio as it applied to these classes of people. The initial design of the ship provided sufficient lifeboat capacity. However, this was subsequently changed by the owners. Do we really think some people are not worth saving/can't be saved? Are there those who won't come on board, for any reason, ever? People today are more concerned with "getting information from the Internet" than knowing what to do with it once they get it. Informational Literacy, coupled with a deeper definition of what it means to read, write and think are the fundamentals without which the Internet will be as vacuous as TV's vast wasteland, or any video arcade. Unless we are designing for "round trips" for knowledge, it may not be worth the voyage. Lesson 4: Have Sufficient Capacity for Everyone's Safe Passage Although the striking of an iceberg was avoidable, once it happened, enormous loss of life was inevitable, by design. The Titanic sailed with only one set of high powered binoculars. When the seaman on watch in the crows' nest requested these glasses on the moonless, cloudless night, he was denied, and these "expensive" glasses stayed with the officer on watch, safely inside the heated bridge. The iceberg wasn't seen on the glassy, smooth water until it was a mile away. The either/or nature of this observation misses the point of whether it is better for seamen (students) or commanders (adults) to have the technology...they both need it! Same for the argument over labs vs. classrooms (which I call the right shoe/left shoe argument...you need both to get anywhere!) Lesson: put the technology in the hands of the learners! Furthermore, if we do not deliberately build in adequate capacity for every learner (students, teachers and parents!) to have convenient, appropriate and sufficient access, we are deliberately writing off some people, as sure as the Titanic's owners put people in the water that night in April, 1912. Remember, the designer only executes the directives of the owner, and in public education, we are the owner! In my school of 700 students, our current capacity permits 125 students each day to use our lab for one period. There are computers in each classroom as well, but every student doesn't get to use these either. Until each student can have access for at least one period every day, to write, collaborate, research, or publish the results of what they are learning, we are not acting as though we are serious about providing for every student what they need. Lesson: it requires great courage, to advocate for adequate capacity in a time of diminishing resources and rising needs. A lifeboat for every passenger wasn't the answer then, and a computer for every student (while the ideal) may not be required today. Even with sufficient lifeboat seats for everyone, each lifeboat required someone who could safely navigate away from the doomed ship, so as not to be pulled under when she went to the bottom. Connecting every classroom to the Internet without providing for educators who know how to harness the potentials such a connection brings is only a partial solution, and inadequate to the challenge of helping every learner make the crossing. We must provide a way for the millions of educators who might desire to lead their students with a means of learning from those thousands of educators already far along the path, and we must do it with more than lip service about the power of technology. Conclusion Sometimes it seems as though we are racing through dark and treacherous waters, on a wonderful but untested conveyance of unrivaled power. We can't be sure who is steering this vessel, whether warnings are heard and heeded, whether we will all make it to the opposite shore. We must be sure to keep our eyes on the goal: strengthening the achievement of all learners, and testing our individual responses to the opportunities we may be presented with, in order to influence events with the courage of our convictions. |
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