CUE, Hall Davidson, and the Cult of "Isn't it cool??"

WARNING: This post will be longer (and more substantial) than a Tweet. If your attention span is not high enough, might I suggest you watch videos of Fred on YouTube?


Over the weekend I attended my first education technology conference in a while: it was the Fall 2010 CUE (Computer-Using Educators) conference -- "Soaring to New Heights" -- held in Napa Valley.

Yes, despite the fact that I have more on my plate than ever before (teaching computers to 400+ students in grades K-6, coordinating two different gifted/advanced learner programs at the school, and working on the final thesis for my MS in Educational Technology -- not to mention recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia), I voluntarily chose to spend 1/2 of my weekend at a professional conference for use of computer technology in education. The things I do out of passion.

Anyway, it's been a few years since I attended an educational technology conference like this (the last one being about 5 years ago, attending a three-day conference held at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland), and I was reminded of something that really, truly bothers me about conventions like this: they are 50% sales pitch, 40% pep rally, and 10% useful information or tools. In the words of the great paragon of fast-food -- Wendy's: "Where's the beef??"

I have no problem, inherently, with sales or pep talks. They are both necessary sometimes. Without marketing, it's likely we wouldn't know about some of the truly wonderful tools and technology that exist for education. And without an occasional morale boost -- well, we'd all probably kill ourselves.

But what this CUE conference really drove home was the dangerous combination of glitz and hype that surround what I'm going to call "the cult of technology" (if you've ever seen people at an Apple store, you'll know what I'm talking about.)

I'm going to use Hall Davidson's closing keynote speech from the CUE conference to illustrate this point. To the man's credit, he came up onto the stage with much energy, enthusiasm, and gusto (following a brief appearance by newly-elected California State Superintendent of Public Instruction.) He showcases a vibrant personality, and that's all well and good for a keynote speaker / pep rally, right? And he didn't just give a speech -- he made use of his laptop and the projector and wireless internet to make it multimedia, to dive right in and show myriad tools in action. That's cool, right?

This is the part where I always have to groan, and the use of technology doesn't quite "float my boat" and make me giddy like the drug it appears to be to the iPad-wielding peers around me. Here's an example: Hall Davidson showcased how you can go to Google Images and do a search and the pictures will show up. But if you really want to make it better, you can go get a plugin -- oh, what's it called? He couldn't remember, so here's a "learning moment" to showcase how "cool" yet another new technology is: Twitter. To drive the point home, he showed how he had popped on and Tweeted about how he couldn't remember the name of the program that would make Google image searches show up in a format like an Apple gallery view. Somebody on Twitter (and with clearly nothing better to do with his time) quickly responded that the app was called "CoolIris"

So Davidson jumps back to Google images in the web browser and explains how you can download and install the CoolIris plugin and it will make the Google images show up in a shiny Apple-like interface in which they appear to be all lined up on a 2D plane (like a wall) in a 3D environment.

"Isn't that cool??" Mr. Davidson prompts. Nods and applause from the iSheep.

Pardon me if I don't jump on the bandwagon. Inadvertently, this "let's get excited about technology" speech pointed out exactly what I'm not excited about: people who think something is great just because it is a new, shiny novelty. People who covet style over substance -- even if it ends up wasting resources (like time or money).

So, let me get this straight: you used Google image search and all the images you wanted to find showed up. You could scroll down the page and find more, as necessary. So, in other words, Google images search functions just fine and allows you to do the task you set out to do. But instead of just being practical and getting the job done, you decided it is "cooler" to waste time Tweeting about it, getting a response, then searching for an app, installing it (bogging your computer with wasted processing power and RAM while your browser is running)... all for ZERO benefit to effectiveness or efficiency?

You can call me a Debbie Downer, but no... no I do not think that's "cool". See, to me what makes technology cool is that it allows us to do things faster, better, or otherwise impossible without it; this does none of the above. It merely illustrates the inanity of our modern-day Cult of Technology and how willing they are to trump substance with style. This app (and others like it) may be free, but the time wasted -- especially when we're talking about our limited instructional minutes in education -- is invaluable.

Oh, but was that example just a poor one, a fluke? Well, Mr. Davidson followed it up by showing how you can create a Wordle (which could, in and of itself, be argued to be another example of replacing substance with style; however, I can understand some of the ostensible benefits of this one for education -- raising awareness of key words, front-loading vocabulary, etc.) Okay, so in case you don't know: a Wordle is a computer-generated stylistic visual representation of some words/text. In and of itself, it doesn't serve much purpose (other than -- you guessed it -- "cool!"), but it doesn't take much time and it could build some awareness of words or their relationships, or maybe give students some motivation to explore synonyms, antonyms, etc. It's not amazing, but it could have its uses. But... useful?? That's not good enough for the Cult of Technology -- we need it to be flashy... cool! Hall Davidson shows you how: create a Wordle, then use PhotoBooth software (Mac required... we all know PCs are just... practical and... uncool.) And what you can do is create a chromakey effect where it will magically erase the background and replace it with your Wordle! And then you can... well, you can video record yourself with a Wordle image in the background which is very useful for, umm... uhh... it serves a practical application in lessons about... chromakey??

Oh, who cares! It's COOL!


(personally, I would have found it a lot cooler if the educators in the room were intelligent enough to be able to correctly spell their favorite beverages which they texted into a central repository -- which included classic wines and beers like "mascado" and "heifenvizen". But beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. We may no longer know how to spell, but at least we can take those misspelled words and make them glitzy, shiny, and cool through the newest -- and therefore the best, of course -- iPad apps available!)