In my last post, “ICT: FutureSchools@Singapore, the MOE and the Amish”, I wondered about our tendency to “unleash” technology on society, and schools in particular. Marshall McLuhan was talking about this way back then in the 1960s.

McLuhan theorized that technology can have an effect on us because technology has that ability to “extend” or “amputate” our abilities. When McLuhan said that the “medium is the message (or massage)” he meant controversially that the medium in which we function will determine what we learn and not the content. One wonders if McLuhan is still around what he would say to the immersive virtual environments that students in Singapore will be experiencing in school soon. What abilities of ours will be extended in such environments? What abilities would be amputated?

McLuhan’s views was somewhat preceded by John Dewey. But it seems that this view is preceded by the Amish. Mcluhan espoused his views in the groovy, colourful era of the 1960s but the far from colourful Amish seems to have been asking this question as a basis for their community’s development far longer.

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