My Father Never Went This Way

by Bob Sprankle

My world has changed again.

I am now the proud owner of a Magellan Maestro GPS system that I got dirt-cheap on Black Friday. I’ve been pining for one for a while, though as my daughter said, “I don’t really know why: we never go anywhere.” Part of the allure has been “geek-lust” and part of it has been because it just makes sense. I mean, if the technology exists —thanks to the satellites floating above me— to have my directions plotted out for me, turn by turn, then why am I killing myself trying to write out directions, and putting myself in danger as I try to read my “chicken scratch” while driving? “Maggie” does it all for me now. That’s what I’ve named “her” because she has a woman’s voice and the moniker Magellan doesn’t fit her kind, grandmotherly voice. Plus, Magellan is a guy’s name. And who’s going to listen to a guy giving directions?

I got to test out Maggie on my way to the Christa McAuliffe Conference last week as Cheryl Oakes and I traveled from Wells, ME to Nashua, NH. Now, I grew up in Nashua. I know how to get there. But I wanted to have Maggie show her stuff, so I let her take the lead, programing her on her “Fastest Route” setting. She got us to our destination about 45 minutes quicker than the route that I’ve been traveling for the past 30 years or so. And mind you, this was during morning rush hour. She sent us via Route 495, which is a route I know, but have ignored due to habit. I usually go the back way…

When we arrived, stunned by our good timing, I uttered the following statement in my defense: “My father never went this way.” For over 30 years, I’ve been following his directions and know that route like the “back of my hand.” Why would I ever question its worth? And now, here comes Maggie, giving me a swift kick in the pants and forcing me to look at the world anew and question all of my preconceived beliefs of travel.

And so, I’ve been changed.

Surely, this is for the better. Not only is Maggie reducing my stress level as she gently tells me when to get into the right lane in preparation for a difficult exit, but she is cleaning up my travel, trimming off the fat, cutting down on mileage and time and gas. In examining what I’ve gained, however, I must also examine what I am losing. Is the technology improving me, or is it making me “soft” and weakening my already pretty lousy skills of creating the best directions? Will relying on Maggie make me less of an “explorer” and more of a “follower” in other aspects of my life? Is listening to a machine telling me where to go causing me to become more compliant and placid?

Ok. I don’t think so… In fact, in the short time that I’ve had Maggie as my co-pilot, I think I’m getting better at directions. I’m starting to learn street names, for instance. Streets that are in my own neighborhood, in fact. Streets that I’ve traveled on for years and just haven’t learned the names to yet. But when I see them on Maggie’s bright LCD screen, they seem to sear themselves into my brain. Also, I am starting to gain more of an understanding of what is around me: “Oh… there’s a river over there!”

Technology has to make sense. The benefits have to outweigh the negatives. Sure, I may weaken my skills at being able to quickly write down directions from someone over the phone, but being able to just enter the address and go is probably going to have the positive effect of making travel more of a delight than a chore. I’ll probably feel freed up to take more adventures than in the past.

When Cheryl and I arrived at the conference, we were first treated to a keynote presentation from Will Richardson. Will shared a story about his daughter having to memorize all of the state capitals in her school. He asked the school for an explanation as to the value of such an exercise. The best explanation that he got was “that it was good for memorization skills.” I believe this is an unsatisfying “cover” for “doing the same old things that we’ve always done.” Much like me following the less valuable route for over 30 years. The fact is, however, we now have tools that can get the state capitals at the click of the button. Does it make sense to spend my time memorizing them when all I have to do is send a text message to Google (dial 46645) and ask Google to text me back the capital of a state?

Now, even in writing about this example, there is this sense of imbalance; a cringing deep down. What do you mean we’re no longer going to ask kids to memorize the state capitals? We’ve always done that! What kind of a generation are you proposing we raise who can’t spit back all the capitals upon request? While driving down Maggie’s new route, I had that same feeling: This is the wrong way. It doesn’t feel right. I should have stuck with what I know. All that went away when I got to the conference 45 minutes early and had time to enjoy a cup of coffee.

Interestingly, I remembered that I wanted to write about this experience because I had Cheryl send me a Jott on her cellphone while we were driving. Jott is a great tool for having reminders or messages emailed to yourself or a friend. Why should I bother writing it down on a sticky note and stuff it in my pocket, only to surface later, erased and crumpled when I take my pants from the dryer?

If the tool works, why not use it? This is a seemingly innocuous question until we start taking a closer look at all the tools we aren’t using, or worse, not allowing others to use. I expect that cell phones in high school will be a contentious topic for quite some time, for instance. And worse, I expect we will demand our students to memorize tons of facts that will either be quickly forgotten once the test is over, or serve our students only in future trivial pursuit competitions. The issue is further compounded by the fact that we live in a world of “haves” and “have nots.” Some of us have the tools (or permission to use them), while others do not. The question of “why not use the tool?” then becomes, “how are we hurting students by not giving them the tools?” Take this simple example: one group of students takes notes the old fashioned way, writing them down on paper in a notebook. Another group of students are taking notes in a program called Notebook where students are now not only able to search their notes, but keywords are automatically indexed. Voice annotations can be added, links created, images pasted, and words can be highlighted… all at the click of a button. Their notes can further be exported as a web page and posted on the Internet for others to share. When given these two options, it is easy to see why using paper is ridiculous when you have a more powerful and useful tool, even if by using it, our students’ handwriting skills weakens.

It’s not the actual tool that I get so excited about; it’s its usefulness and relevance. I have to question the benefits along with the negatives in deciding whether to use it or not, and I need to help my students recognize the importance of this process. My daughter took this questioning a step further the other day when we were driving around with Maggie and I was exuding my enthusiasm for the new tool. She said, “Yeah, but what a bummer if you’re depending on this and it breaks and you don’t know how to get there.” Excellent point! Always have a backup for when the technology fails!

Image Citation:
Milosevic, Marko. “Road to Hell.” Nictalopen’s Photostream 17 Jul 2006 05 Dec 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/nictalopen/192036057/>.