In short, the power to overcome time, distance and the limitations of our own physical bodies. Learning in the era of the 'Net tends to get degraded from comprehending ideas through experience and thought into enhancing personal power through the possession of information. All of the attributes of power cited above may be valuable in the world of business or politics, but in the realm of education they are deadening. They focus attention not on developing thoughtfulness and insights but on improving performance. It is the pursuit of ever higher levels of performance that guides educational policy today, not a concern for developing strong, deep comprehension of the world.
Students have to produce measurable skills at every rung of the educational ladder.
With the emphasis on performance and the measurability of that performance, there is neither the time nor the payoff for letting children sink those deeper, less measurable roots of understanding from which meaningful knowledge can eventually emerge. Rather, we search for the vendor who can sell us the machinery with the necessary skill built into it to help the children meet decontextualized standards of performance. And more and more this empowerment is seen as coming through the computer-based accumulation and manipulation of information. References Birkerts, Sven. The Fate of Reading in the Electronic Age .