A Lesson in Education Technology From a Very, Very Old Tradition

Pearl diver in Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Lee W Reed

In Okinawa, Japan, women have been diving for pearls for more than 2,000 years.

Traditionally dressed in only a loincloth, they would dive to depths as deep as 120 feet to find the oysters and mussels that produce pearls.

This work was largely done by women because they were better able to endure the cold of the depths they were diving (women's bodies distribute fat more evenly then men).

The work was very dangerous, as you might expect, exposing them to predators, harsh environments and shallow water blackouts.

In the 1960s, they were approached by a firm selling scuba gear. The company demonstrated that one person with the right gear could gather as many oysters as an entire village of women in a day.

The results were enticing, but they also raised a number of very significant questions including which women would use the gear, and how would the profits be divided.

A town counsel was called and everyone discussed the pros and cons of buying scuba gear. In the end, the decision was made reject the use of scuba and continue with their tradition.

Today these Ama Divers, as they are called, still dive for pearls, though largely for the benefit of tourists rather than for the pearls they gather.

Even scuba divers couldn't compete with the advancements in pearl culture, where thousands of oysters could be grown in shallow depths and tricked into growing pearls in a confined area where they could be easily harvested.

So what does this have to do with education? Look just about anywhere in the education industry and you will find wholesale attempts to introduce as much technology into the classroom as quickly as possible.

There are even watchdog groups that report on the school boards that are acting the quickest to engage in these technologies. Blog after blog extols the virtues of employing the latest technological masterpiece, while those who are slower are looked down on as archaic and anachronistic.

Some of these programs have good empirical data to back them up, many do not. Some programs are developed by wonderful people with altruistic motives, but many are being promoted by new non-profits that are little more than shells for large corporations who stand to make fortunes if their particular technology becomes the new standard.

With all the hype and hyperbole that is flying around right now, it is virtually impossible to find a voice that will ask the tough questions about whether or not these technologies make good sense.

Unlike the Japanese Ama Divers, there are few town council meetings to carefully consider what makes sense and what does not.

One of the reasons the Common Core standards, good as they may be, are getting such resistance at the grass roots level is because the proponents have: a) used a top-down approach; and b) have not been completely forthcoming about who the stakeholders are and who will profit when these technologies are adopted.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with coming up with something new and making a profit on it; it's the American way. However, using healthy political contributions to get the support of legislators in bellwether states in exchange for support for new programs is certainly less desirable.

This doesn't mean we need to be reactionary; it just means that we need to examine the new technologies that are introduced, checking the validity of their claims carefully before we purchase them.

It also doesn't mean we need to reject a promising new technology, as the divers did, if that technology can produce better results at a lower cost. What it does mean is that teachers and parents alike should ask the requisite questions to make sure we are getting the best bag for the buck.

Progress and technology are wonderful tools when balanced with careful consideration and forethought. Let's do the due diligence before we head down a rabbit hole that could take years to escape. It's our future we are betting on here, and that is certainly worth our full attention.

Lee Reed is a teacher, a grandfather and a world traveler. This fall he will be leaving for Cambodia on a ten month Fulbright Scholarship. You can catch more of his work on his blog: http://teachingadayatatime.wordpress.com/

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