Digitizing Learning And Updating Classrooms

How Are we Allowing This?

Morning comes and our students walk through their bland halls lined with factory bells only to enter their dully decorated classrooms. They are given marching orders and sit in the same unbearably small and uncomfortable chairs. Lined up in orderly rows, class starts and the students clench their jaws and eyes to show the teacher they're listening.

They are scolded for fidgeting, sent to the principal for “acting out,” and if such behavior persists they either get suspended or worse, expelled. Following the expulsion or suspension, students are often thrown on stimulants to ensure they act in accordance with school regulations.

The Dangers of "ADHD Medication"

The so-called “ADHD medications” that are on the market today shut down specific regions of the brain associated with emotions. A loss of emotionality ensues and with that comes an inability to express their personality.

Millions of children and adults have been and are being diagnosed with "ADHD" and given "medication." The rapidly rising number of cases naturally begs the question - if so many people have these chemical imbalances, is being hyperactive a disorder or an aspect of being human for a large portion of the population?

Additionally, if one can't feel a full range of emotions, are they able to mature emotionally?

The numbers continue to climb as 388,000 children aged 2 to 5 years old, 4 million aged 6 to 11 years old, and 3 million more aged 12 to 17-year-olds have now been diagnosed with ADHD. Imagine, 2 to 5-year-olds on drugs that are one chemical compound away from methamphetamine.

 The Baby of Practices

This all somehow feels irresponsible, especially when one realizes how young psychiatry is as a practice. The brain remains largely a mystery to neuroscientists, neurologists and thus psychiatrists. Meanwhile, these drugs which tinker with the brain are being given out by the baby of practices, psychiatry, at an incredibly rapid rate. With all of that being said, there is an alternative to stimulants--digitizing learning.

The Assembly-Line Model of Education

The assembly-line model of education is destined to die and out of the ashes will arise an updated educational experience for students. In the 19th and 20th centuries, schools were purposefully designed to mimic factories, and students, well, they were the assembly-line workers of course. This made sense when the United States was the industrial powerhouse of the world, before the information era transformed every aspect of our lives. Before, most importantly, digital tools of transformation were introduced.

Algorithms And Dopamine

After that last factory bell rings, students can run home and interact with the entire known cosmos with a touch of their iPad and speak with George Washington on their Playstation. These digital tools can produce the same dopaminergic rush as stimulants.

The notion that these transformational tools are only used for entertainment purposes is absurd--they need to be integrated into our classrooms. Trailers, for example, are literally put together in such a way as to release the largest amount of dopamine within 3 minutes. Producers do this by using algorithms to say, introduce said music at the perfect time to flood the brain with dopamine.

Education Reform

Imagine, your son or daughter, niece or nephew, being able to speak with Plato rather than have the Socratic thought explained to them. In their astronomy class, after putting on their VR headset, flying through the cosmos and interacting with what interested them most.

Game developers can code such experiences, yet our classrooms remain places of boredom and aesthetically repugnant. Most teachers still use chalkboards as we all walk around with a mini-computer in our pocket.

Factory Workers And Enlightenment

The education system was designed to produce citizens that were ready for factory work. Yet it persists while being completely obsolete and also corrosive to society at large. Today, a new, digital, fast-paced, and consumer-based economy surrounds us, not factories. If Apple can produce iPads, if the American government can invest 735 billion dollars into defense, corporations and the American government can and should create a device specialized for inspirational learning. Such devices would transform the learning process entirely and, I predict, fix the ongoing education problem.

I have witnessed online vehicles of inspirational learning transform "the worst of us" into wise and good people. By immersing themselves in digitized learning experiences that act on the brain in a similar way as those trailers, they enter into states of wonder and curiosity. They not only gain information and want to engage with that world but grow as people.

Politicians And Solutions

Politicians constantly speak about how broken our education system is and they are absolutely right. American test scores, when compared against the rest of the developed and developing world, clearly shows the severity of our education crisis. America scores 24th in science among developed nations and 39th in mathematics, falling behind developing countries as well according to PEW.

The solution, integrating online tools that bring about a state of inspiration, wonder, and curiosity. In sum, creating vehicles that make people want to learn for leisure.

By Chris Panagakis, Founder of Curiosity Shots

Previously published at https://curiosityshots.com/part-i-digitizing-the-learning-process/