College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Technology run amok

Greenlee School's Michael Bugeja explores impact of technology on education.

Education systems across the nation have made, and continue to make, large investments in technology.

Michael Bugeja, professor and director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, is questioning whether that investment is being used for what was intended for.

Bugeja, in an article that was published in the Jan. 27 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, evaluates the impact of social networks like Facebook on the nation's college students.

Facebook is an interactive, image-laden directory featuring groups that share lifestyles or attitudes such as a particular sports team, musical act, social cause, lifestyle or recreational activity.

Estimates indicate that more than 80 percent of students at some 2,000 institutions visit www.facebook.com. Iowa State, with a total enrollment of 25,741, has more than 20,247 registered users on Facebook.

"Many students find Facebook addicting, evidenced by groups with names such as ‘Addicted to the Facebook,' which boasts 325 members at Iowa State," Bugeja reports in his article. "Nationwide, Facebook tallies 250 million hits every day and ranks ninth in overall traffic on the Internet."

The problem, Bugeja states, is that Facebook and today's high-tech gadgets are becoming as much a distraction as a tool for learning.

"Information technology was supposed to bridge digital divides, enhance student research and foster multicultural awareness," he says. "Increasingly, however, our networks are being used to entertain members of the Facebook Generation who text during class, cell-phone during lab and listen to iPods rather than guest speakers in the wireless lecture hall."

Bugeja is also concerned with the ethical issues that Facebook and other similar sites such as MySpace present. Although Facebook and its competitors forbid fabrications, there are instances of inappropriate photos or stereotypes used on sites.

Bugeja has seen fictitious personae that have masqueraded as administrators, including college presidents.

"In fact," he says, "as I was writing my article, one of my sources - a professor from the University of Colorado - wrote that a fake profile was posted about him on MySpace.

"Unless we reassess our high-tech priorities, issues associated with insensitivity, indiscretion, bias and fabrication will consume us in higher education," he continued.
"Potential solutions will challenge core beliefs concerning digital divides, pedagogies, budget allocations and, above all, our duty to instill critical thinking in multitaskers."

Some institutions have assembled task forces or blocked content of social networks, Bugeja notes.

"My preference is not to block content but to instill in students what I call ‘interpersonal intelligence,' or the ability to discern when, where and for what purpose technology may be appropriate or inappropriate."

Bugeja is the author of the award-winning book Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Interpersonal Divide documents the void that develops between people when they spend too much time in virtual rather than in real communities. Bugeja traces media history to show how other generations have coped with similar problems during periods of great technological change and makes a case for face-to-face communication in a technological world, informing readers how to use media and technology wisely so that they enhance rather than replace community.