"There is a danger that TV education will concentrate on teaching things that make good TV, rather than things kids need to learn." -Postman
"Teaching as an Amusing Activity"Chapter 10 of Amusing Ourselves to Death by: Neil Postman
Summary:
Television and school should be separated.
Sesame street on television isn’t a replacement for school
Sesame street entertains kids more than it does teaching them basic skills
Television is far from traditional schooling
Television children sit and are entertained and in the end don’t really learn much, compared to traditional schooling where information is retained better
Television takes away from imagination
Television limits a child’s imagination while writing and reading help expand a child’s mind.
As well as television can deteriorate the child’s imagination
Television commandments
Thou shalt have no prerequisites
Allowing viewers to access with no prejudice
Critical thinking is not acquired while watching television.
Anyone can access and within minutes understand content
Thou shalt induce no perplexity
With perplexity common man or viewers may not understand content
With this ratings will lower and may end programs
Developing the mind is frowned upon in television world
Thou shalt avoid exposition
All television is, is story telling
Language, reasoning, and all discussion is all disabled to some difficulty of comprehension
Teachers and school will always dominate over television
While watching television children were not able to expand knowledge but when taught personally expansion of knowledge improved
Ability to retain information
After “learning” from television Children may not be able to retain information for more than a day unless repeated many times.
While in school and reading written and personally communicated information is well retained.
Major Concepts and Vocabulary:
The three major concepts presented in this chapter are very clearly stated for the audience. "3 Commandments of Television Philosophy" are as follows. Have no prerequisites
Essentially this is saying that there is no need for previous thought or effort. The system of learning through television is currupt and sets children on an uneven playing ground. There is not a need for the learning process through educational T.V.
Induce no perplexity
With virtual education, there is an extreme lack of true learning. There is no time or need to process, study, or apply the material present in front of a child. If they wish to briefly learn about it they can now watch a show about it or simply pull up Google.
Avoid exposition
There is no real argument behind good T.V. it is mostly told and displayed in a narrative state without an expository.The loss of all reasoned discorse is lost into music and a story.
Dora the Explorer is, at first glance, a creative way to teach small children Spanish by having them parrot the words that are yelled at them from the screen and presents the joys of learning Spanish through entertainment. However, the show is made to entertain, and it is not made to teach as many people tend to believe. The show successfully illustrates the "3 Commandments of Television Philosophy" that Neil Postman outlines in this chapter. The first being "Thou shalt have no prerequisites": Dora the Explorer's episodes can be viewed out of order and in any order and still make sense. The second being "Thou shalt induce no perplexity": Dora the Explorer doesn't require the viewer to remember anything; Dora simply screams out phrases or words in Spanish to get repeated back. The final commandment is "Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt": Everything about Dora the Explorer is theatrical; the characters, the music, the perspective the audience has to the adventure are all very cheesy, dramatic, and staged-like. In all, Dora the Explorer is straight entertainment shrouded with an educational assumption placed upon it by parents. Lacking prerequisites, perplexity, and exposition, Neil Postman would label the show as nothing more than entertainment.
Discussion Questions:
1) Is there technology today that wasn't around when the book was written that is more capable of teaching students effectively? Provide an example.
2) How has social media (facebook, twitter, etc) inhibited or enhanced learning?
3) How has media changed the general public's perception of education and how education should be approached?
4) Do shows such as Sesame Street have any educational value or are they purely for the purpose of entertainment?
5) In the example of "The Voyage of the MImi" Postman argues that when media is implemented in schools the information taught is irrelevant and unimporant. Do you agree of disagree?
6) Should restrictions be placed on the amount of tv kids are allowed to watch in order to limit the affect media has on their mindsets?
7) Do the benefits of applying media to education outweigh the disadvantages?
8) On average, teens watch 20+ hours of television a week. Is this a good use of time or can that time be spent on more purposeful endeavors?
9) In your opinion, should education be linked to media at all or would the education system benefit more if we returned to the way education was before technological developments?
10) Postman argues that children grow up accustomed to being entertained and to believe that everything should be entertaining. How has this belief affected the way we learn and the way teachers plan their lessons? Should school be entertaining?
Research:
Even though Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death was published in 1985, his argument of how media has a major effect on our culture still applies to contemporary society. Media not only dominates the news, politics, religion, etc., but education as well. Television, the internet, electronic devices, and all other forms of advanced technology have made their way into classrooms to enhance learning by incorporating entertainment. To exemplify, students starting at the age of five use computers to play games that help them learn their Arithmetic and English skills. It seems plausible that children would enjoy playing games while learning important skills; however, is it beneficial to expose uses of technology to young children while their brains are in the process of development? Sociobiologist Dalton Conley in his article "Wired for Distraction: Kids and Social Media", researches the damages to the formation of a brain for kids who have constant connectivity to technology. He finds out that the brain has separate circuits for the concentration of different topics; therefore, entertainment and learning should not be paired together, otherwise the brain could be badly damaged. In addition, many teenagers are constantly texting, updating their Facebook status, and Tweeting during school hours. Students are able to communicate with their friends (who may be in the same building as they are) by texting, meanwhile getting sidetracked from the teacher's lesson. This informal method of communication promotes the bad habit of multi-tasking and the inability to focus on learning. A 2006 study performed by UCLA scientists shows that, "[people who multitask] and focused learners deploy different parts of the brain when they learn the same thing" (Conley, par. 5). The people who multitask rely on their striatum, which converts the learning into more like habits, while focused learners rely on their hippocampus which builds up knowledge for high-level thinking. According to Conley, the key to getting well-paying jobs is to exert high-level thinking, in which the people who multitask generally aren't able to do because their brain is in the habit of focusing on multiple tasks at once. Different types of media have made their way into the educational system, as Postman said they would. In current society, many students believe that "learning is a form of entertainment, [and that] anything worth learning can take the form of entertainment, and ought to" (Postman 154). Compared to the electronic-free learning days where teaching was done straight from textbooks, the way learning is acquired in today's culture is altered for the students who are more dependent on electronic devices. Education has transitioned from "serious business" to "a form of entertainment". Due to the uses of technology in education, students develop bad habits of multitasking, inability to focus at a young age, and becoming too dependent on being entertained while learning, which could negatively affect their future.
References:
Conley, Dalton. “Wired for Distraction? Like it or not, social media are reprogramming our children’s brains. What’s a good parent to do?” Time. 12 Mar. 2013.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves To Death. New York City, NY: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. Print. 12 Mar. 2013.
"There is a danger that TV education will concentrate on teaching things that make good TV, rather than things kids need to learn." -Postman"Teaching as an Amusing Activity" Chapter 10 of Amusing Ourselves to Death by: Neil Postman
Summary:
Major Concepts and Vocabulary:
The three major concepts presented in this chapter are very clearly stated for the audience. "3 Commandments of Television Philosophy" are as follows.Have no prerequisites
Essentially this is saying that there is no need for previous thought or effort. The system of learning through television is currupt and sets children on an uneven playing ground. There is not a need for the learning process through educational T.V.
Induce no perplexity
With virtual education, there is an extreme lack of true learning. There is no time or need to process, study, or apply the material present in front of a child. If they wish to briefly learn about it they can now watch a show about it or simply pull up Google.
Avoid exposition
There is no real argument behind good T.V. it is mostly told and displayed in a narrative state without an expository.The loss of all reasoned discorse is lost into music and a story.
Visual Presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9bJveyKqE0Dora the Explorer is, at first glance, a creative way to teach small children Spanish by having them parrot the words that are yelled at them from the screen and presents the joys of learning Spanish through entertainment. However, the show is made to entertain, and it is not made to teach as many people tend to believe. The show successfully illustrates the "3 Commandments of Television Philosophy" that Neil Postman outlines in this chapter. The first being "Thou shalt have no prerequisites": Dora the Explorer's episodes can be viewed out of order and in any order and still make sense. The second being "Thou shalt induce no perplexity": Dora the Explorer doesn't require the viewer to remember anything; Dora simply screams out phrases or words in Spanish to get repeated back. The final commandment is "Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt": Everything about Dora the Explorer is theatrical; the characters, the music, the perspective the audience has to the adventure are all very cheesy, dramatic, and staged-like. In all, Dora the Explorer is straight entertainment shrouded with an educational assumption placed upon it by parents. Lacking prerequisites, perplexity, and exposition, Neil Postman would label the show as nothing more than entertainment.
Discussion Questions:
1) Is there technology today that wasn't around when the book was written that is more capable of teaching students effectively? Provide an example.
2) How has social media (facebook, twitter, etc) inhibited or enhanced learning?
3) How has media changed the general public's perception of education and how education should be approached?
4) Do shows such as Sesame Street have any educational value or are they purely for the purpose of entertainment?
5) In the example of "The Voyage of the MImi" Postman argues that when media is implemented in schools the information taught is irrelevant and unimporant. Do you agree of disagree?
6) Should restrictions be placed on the amount of tv kids are allowed to watch in order to limit the affect media has on their mindsets?
7) Do the benefits of applying media to education outweigh the disadvantages?
8) On average, teens watch 20+ hours of television a week. Is this a good use of time or can that time be spent on more purposeful endeavors?
9) In your opinion, should education be linked to media at all or would the education system benefit more if we returned to the way education was before technological developments?
10) Postman argues that children grow up accustomed to being entertained and to believe that everything should be entertaining. How has this belief affected the way we learn and the way teachers plan their lessons? Should school be entertaining?
Research:
Even though Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death was published in 1985, his argument of how media has a major effect on our culture still applies to contemporary society. Media not only dominates the news, politics, religion, etc., but education as well. Television, the internet, electronic devices, and all other forms of advanced technology have made their way into classrooms to enhance learning by incorporating entertainment. To exemplify, students starting at the age of five use computers to play games that help them learn their Arithmetic and English skills. It seems plausible that children would enjoy playing games while learning important skills; however, is it beneficial to expose uses of technology to young children while their brains are in the process of development? Sociobiologist Dalton Conley in his article "Wired for Distraction: Kids and Social Media", researches the damages to the formation of a brain for kids who have constant connectivity to technology. He finds out that the brain has separate circuits for the concentration of different topics; therefore, entertainment and learning should not be paired together, otherwise the brain could be badly damaged. In addition, many teenagers are constantly texting, updating their Facebook status, and Tweeting during school hours. Students are able to communicate with their friends (who may be in the same building as they are) by texting, meanwhile getting sidetracked from the teacher's lesson. This informal method of communication promotes the bad habit of multi-tasking and the inability to focus on learning. A 2006 study performed by UCLA scientists shows that, "[people who multitask] and focused learners deploy different parts of the brain when they learn the same thing" (Conley, par. 5). The people who multitask rely on their striatum, which converts the learning into more like habits, while focused learners rely on their hippocampus which builds up knowledge for high-level thinking. According to Conley, the key to getting well-paying jobs is to exert high-level thinking, in which the people who multitask generally aren't able to do because their brain is in the habit of focusing on multiple tasks at once. Different types of media have made their way into the educational system, as Postman said they would. In current society, many students believe that "learning is a form of entertainment, [and that] anything worth learning can take the form of entertainment, and ought to" (Postman 154). Compared to the electronic-free learning days where teaching was done straight from textbooks, the way learning is acquired in today's culture is altered for the students who are more dependent on electronic devices. Education has transitioned from "serious business" to "a form of entertainment". Due to the uses of technology in education, students develop bad habits of multitasking, inability to focus at a young age, and becoming too dependent on being entertained while learning, which could negatively affect their future.References:
Conley, Dalton. “Wired for Distraction? Like it or not, social media are reprogramming our children’s brains. What’s a good parent to do?” Time. 12 Mar. 2013.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves To Death. New York City, NY: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985. Print. 12 Mar. 2013.
Links to Related Pages:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2048363,00.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_ourselves_to_death
Contributors: Blake (Summarizer), Sarah Thompson (Teacher/ Whole Class Presenter), Kylie (Visual Presenter and Copy Editor), Dominique Wirth (Facilitator), Yushan Wu (Researcher)