1) Commercials and television shows a) Children were raised on television show b) The idea of being taught by commercials is weird 2) Sesame Street a) Parents embraced it because it allowed kids to sit still for unnatural amounts of time b) Hoped that television could teach their kids something that they didn’t have to 3) Educators a) Adapt to find new methods of teaching b) Imaginative aid in solving the growing problem of teaching how ot read and love school at the same time. 4) Problems a) Encourages kids to love school that’s just like “Sesame Street” b) Undermines traditional school c) The classroom is a stale and flat environment, the inventors of television is to blame for it. d) Teaches kids how to love television e) TV educates by teaching children to do what television-viewing requires them 5) America a) Reading books and watching television differ entirely in what they imply about learning b) Education is centered around the slow-moving printed words, while the emergence of a new education is based on the speed-of-light electronic image. c) Television has the power to control time, attention, and cognitive young adults d) Education philosophers assumed that becoming acculturated is difficult and involves restraints e) 3 commandments that form the philosophy of education i) Thou shall have no prerequisites ii) Thou shalt induce no perplexity iii) Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt 6) Entertainment a) Consequences of reorientation are to be observed, in the classroom and paradoxically b) Teachers are increasing visual simulations c) Multi-media presentation d) Enhancing student interest in schooling e) Shows increase learning when information is presented in a dramatic way f) School curriculum is determined by the character of television g) Learning is a form of entertainment
Research: In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman analyzes the effects that TV has on society. Although Amusing Ourselves to Death was written in 1985, Postman's argument is applicable to modern society and its obsessions with social media, TV, and other technologies. In the chapter titled "Teaching As an Amusing Activity," Postman postulates the growing association with entertainment and school. In today's society, teachers use technology as a messiah for information and the interpretation of information; from using online articles as research, to creating websites like this one, teachers utilize the technology of today for their methods of teaching. There are even sites such as www.schoology.com that are in the format of the popular social network Facebook, but for it is used with the intention of academic discussion. Postman argues that "Sesame Street" (most likely other modern children shows such as "Dora the Explorer" and "Yo Gabba Gabba") "undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents" (Postman 143). According to Postman, traditional schooling is effective in that it provides the outlet for discussion and questioning only available in face to face situations, not through the "private preserve" of television. However, with modern technology, it is possible that sites such as Twitter or Facebook deepen a discussion rather than halt it. Steven Johnson of Time Magazine in an article named, "How Twitter will Change the Way We Live" suggests that Twitter is an entirely new gateway to discussion. The author states, "Injecting Twitter into that conversation fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. It added a second layer of discussion and brought a wider audience into what would have been a private exchange." (Johnson par. 10) Twitter and other technologies have the potential to change the world's conversations--not only in school but in real life. All of this technology is a new medium that, as Postman suggested, changes our discourse, but maybe not entirely to our detriment. Time Article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1902818,00.html Visual Presentation-Summerlyn Bruski-Hyland
This video depicts Count Dracula's version of the word "count" as a fun and humorous homonym, singing a whimsical tune about how to count from 1 to 9. There is a dramatic and lovable setting of Count's home with cute bats flying around and a box--one that resembles a jukebox--that aids Count in singing his song about counting. This type of television program is becoming even more popular, especially with parents and teachers. In the chapter "Teaching as an Amusing Activity" of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman addresses the issue with "educational" television shows: they are enforcing the idea of entertaining education into the minds of the youth. The idea encourages both children and teachers that education must come in the form of entertainment in order to be material that can be taught and can be learned. In the Sesame Street video, an energetic and entertaining song helps the audience count to 9. Another problem Postman addresses is that whatever is taught with a television show is not worth-while and can easily be learned by more traditional methods, for television as a media can only contain a certain amount of content. Children, for years, have been taught to count to 9 without the aid of entertaining and obnoxious techniques and Postman argues and validates this claim with a statistic that children actually retain more information from learning by traditional methods than entertaining ones. All the bells and whistles of Sesame Street and Count's songs all well as other entertainment-based education methods are unnecessary and harmful to a person's education. Discussion Questions:
Are games and TV shows, such as Sesame Street and Jumpstart games, really helping kids learn or is it making them dependent on technology?
By incorporating technology into people's education, is society becoming more lazy or innovative?
How could someone tell the difference between being entertained and learning something?
How does the title, Amusing Ourselves to Death, correspond with the ideas in this chapter?
Why is it dangerous, from future decisions, to teach children with entertainment?
Why has society made the shift from engaging in long lectures to watching thirty minute TV shows?
Why are teaching and entertaining are inseparable?
Why does learning from fictional books nurture one’s education but TV does not?
How does technology that is presented today support Postman's argument?
What are the advantages/disadvantages to education on TV?
1) Commercials and television shows
a) Children were raised on television show
b) The idea of being taught by commercials is weird
2) Sesame Street
a) Parents embraced it because it allowed kids to sit still for unnatural amounts of time
b) Hoped that television could teach their kids something that they didn’t have to
3) Educators
a) Adapt to find new methods of teaching
b) Imaginative aid in solving the growing problem of teaching how ot read and love school at the same time.
4) Problems
a) Encourages kids to love school that’s just like “Sesame Street”
b) Undermines traditional school
c) The classroom is a stale and flat environment, the inventors of television is to blame for it.
d) Teaches kids how to love television
e) TV educates by teaching children to do what television-viewing requires them
5) America
a) Reading books and watching television differ entirely in what they imply about learning
b) Education is centered around the slow-moving printed words, while the emergence of a new education is based on the speed-of-light electronic image.
c) Television has the power to control time, attention, and cognitive young adults
d) Education philosophers assumed that becoming acculturated is difficult and involves restraints
e) 3 commandments that form the philosophy of education
i) Thou shall have no prerequisites
ii) Thou shalt induce no perplexity
iii) Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt
6) Entertainment
a) Consequences of reorientation are to be observed, in the classroom and paradoxically
b) Teachers are increasing visual simulations
c) Multi-media presentation
d) Enhancing student interest in schooling
e) Shows increase learning when information is presented in a dramatic way
f) School curriculum is determined by the character of television
g) Learning is a form of entertainment
Research:
In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman analyzes the effects that TV has on society. Although Amusing Ourselves to Death was written in 1985, Postman's argument is applicable to modern society and its obsessions with social media, TV, and other technologies. In the chapter titled "Teaching As an Amusing Activity," Postman postulates the growing association with entertainment and school. In today's society, teachers use technology as a messiah for information and the interpretation of information; from using online articles as research, to creating websites like this one, teachers utilize the technology of today for their methods of teaching. There are even sites such as www.schoology.com that are in the format of the popular social network Facebook, but for it is used with the intention of academic discussion. Postman argues that "Sesame Street" (most likely other modern children shows such as "Dora the Explorer" and "Yo Gabba Gabba") "undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents" (Postman 143). According to Postman, traditional schooling is effective in that it provides the outlet for discussion and questioning only available in face to face situations, not through the "private preserve" of television. However, with modern technology, it is possible that sites such as Twitter or Facebook deepen a discussion rather than halt it. Steven Johnson of Time Magazine in an article named, "How Twitter will Change the Way We Live" suggests that Twitter is an entirely new gateway to discussion. The author states, "Injecting Twitter into that conversation fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. It added a second layer of discussion and brought a wider audience into what would have been a private exchange." (Johnson par. 10) Twitter and other technologies have the potential to change the world's conversations--not only in school but in real life. All of this technology is a new medium that, as Postman suggested, changes our discourse, but maybe not entirely to our detriment.
Time Article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1902818,00.html
Visual Presentation-Summerlyn Bruski-Hyland
This video depicts Count Dracula's version of the word "count" as a fun and humorous homonym, singing a whimsical tune about how to count from 1 to 9. There is a dramatic and lovable setting of Count's home with cute bats flying around and a box--one that resembles a jukebox--that aids Count in singing his song about counting. This type of television program is becoming even more popular, especially with parents and teachers. In the chapter "Teaching as an Amusing Activity" of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman addresses the issue with "educational" television shows: they are enforcing the idea of entertaining education into the minds of the youth. The idea encourages both children and teachers that education must come in the form of entertainment in order to be material that can be taught and can be learned. In the Sesame Street video, an energetic and entertaining song helps the audience count to 9. Another problem Postman addresses is that whatever is taught with a television show is not worth-while and can easily be learned by more traditional methods, for television as a media can only contain a certain amount of content. Children, for years, have been taught to count to 9 without the aid of entertaining and obnoxious techniques and Postman argues and validates this claim with a statistic that children actually retain more information from learning by traditional methods than entertaining ones. All the bells and whistles of Sesame Street and Count's songs all well as other entertainment-based education methods are unnecessary and harmful to a person's education.
Discussion Questions: