Well, I have started using my new GPS and I have had some unsettling feeling about it. I have long prided myself on my ability to recognize landmarks, remember them and use them when traveling to ensure that I don't get lost and take the best routes possible. This navigtion ability came about from growing up in the country, where not all roads were found on the maps. I still used maps, especially for finding back roads that would make my drive shorter or more pleasant. So when I started using the GPS, I assumed it would be like using a road map, but I have found out I am wrong.
I started out by plotting where I was going and using the GPS to, what I felt, was blindly guide me there. I ended up getting to my destination, but when I looked at the route the GPS took me on, it was a round-about way that I would not have taken if I used my handy map. I went on another trip a few weeks ago to the ECOO board meetings and took a route that I used to take to my cottage. I programmed in "via points" and off we went. Well, wouldn't you know it we ended up in a subdivision about 2 miles from our intended destination. On the way home we followed the route the GPS calculated and ended up taking another round-about way that I would have never have taken...GPS navigation saver...not yet!
So I started thinking about this problem and started thinking that this technology might cause our students to lose the sense of navigation that has helped us navigate through the years. But then I started seeing similarities with other tools when they were first introduced. I wonder if people felt the same way when calculators were introduced? Did they think people would lose their reasoning and mathmatical skills...I know they felt that way. How about the computer. Did people feel that they would "run our lives' and we would not want to do anything for ourselve? I bet that was the case. In both of these examples, when the initial dust settled, it is obvious both of those tools did not cause us to lose our skills, but instead enhanced them and allowe us to reach further into the future by allowing us to build on our already established skills and enhancing them with technology.
I suspect the same will be the case with the GPS...but for now, I still check that map to see if the route is the best one to take!
/shawn
Comments
I as well have had some unusual dealings with GPS units that are used for road navigation. I have been directed to turn right into the St Lawrence River (Baie St Paul). I have been directed to do a loop to come back to the road we were to turn. And on a third occasion, the GPS took me through a small village instead of staying on the highway (programmed for the fastest route, not shortest).
Despite that, I do not think that GPS technology is in its infancy. The technology has come a long way since Selective Availability. Soon Galileo satellites will be used for travel as well. They are used in surveying down to millimetre precision. A hand-held Garmin, WASS-enabled, is precise to three meters. Not too shabby for technology that relies on triangulation at the speed of light where 1/100th of a second can put you 25 kilometers away from your true location. I still marvel at such technology, but am saddened knowing that it is also used to guide a Tomahawk Cruise Missile.
Having used GPS units in the classroom for more than 10 years, I can tell you that students never run into such problems, because the GPS receivers are not designed for road use where the algorithms used for calculation are much more complex and the road network loaded on the GPS may be incomplete or out of date. Students have made mistakes with their GPS units, but it is almost always human error or low batteries.
The bottom line is that we need to teach our students to use technology with the knowledge that it is not fallible and one should never stop questioning whether the binary-driven results are plausible and accurate.