Smelly Knowledge

There is no question in my mind that our tools of the information age — computers, the Internet, cell phones, all the associated accoutrements — are changing the way we, as participants, do things and even think. That certainly doesn’t mean that these changes are necessarily and always changes for the good.

George Siemens of the Connectivismtivism blog — almost always thought provoking — just posted an item entitled “The Joys of Shallow Thinking….” The idea behind this post is to move the skills of, as one commenter puts it, “scanning and gisting” into a primary position in the learning sphere. Will Richardson, who seems to have an overall positive view of “shallow thinking,” writes,

I’ve started to feel guilty about the way I read these days. My wife gives me grief because I don’t spend as much time with books as I used to. And in some ways I miss that.

The Knowledging across life’s curriculum blog refers to a techno-determinism aspect of connectivism. I would agree with this analysis; posts proclaiming the joys of shallowness of thought would seem to support this. To remind us all that the Internet may not be ushering an age of new ways of interacting, communicating, and doing things, “…only about 10 percent connectivisme on the planet are familiar with the Internet and what it can do,” according to Taking the Internet to the People by Tony Salvador and John Sherry, two ethnographers for Intel. These two scientists describe stories people in developing countries when introduced the Internet solving immediate and necessary problems, often for their personal and economic well-being. They do not have the luxury — or the need — of scanning and gisting. They are not participating in shallow thinking; they are deeply, fully immersed, learning and doing for their own benefit, the benefit of their family, or of their community.