Technologies versus Skills
Marc Prensky in July blogged about verbs versus nouns (http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/2009_07.html) when talking about lasting skills versus technology. From my doctoral work in the studying of Activity Theory, I came to the understanding that technologies are just tools for a subject uses to work towards a goal. In activity theory language, these are called mediating artifacts. They are a means to an end and not an end in itself. In Prensky’s language, he calls the technology the “nouns”. “Nouns” change all the time. We know that the technologies change every six months or so. But, “verbs” or the skills such as “doing presentations” do not change as often. The tools, or the nouns, change but the actual skill does not. So, when we are developing programs we need to think about the “verbs” or skills that we need to be teaching the next generation of technologists versus just focusing on the tools. Prensky’s post was a good explanation of a topic which is interest of mine. I will be honest that I was focused too much on the “nouns” in the past but now I look at this a little differently now. The challenge we have as educators is that students look at the “nouns” when they are looking into programs. They care about whether or not we are up to date in our technologies when we know that the skills are more important because those will be portable and last when the technologies change before our eyes. Students need to realize that the “nouns” will change more than a few times while they are in school and so they need to stay up to date on the changes but master the skills that use those technologies mediating to accomplish the goal. So, technologies are a means to an end. The skills are the end in themselves. The skills use the technologies to get things done and yes students need to make sure they can use the tools and stay current with them.
