In Defense of Digital Media
Frontline is running an interesting documentary on PBS titled Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier. The program explores the implications of a generation raised as digital natives. Many of the experts interviewed deliver a cautionary tale on the rapidly evolving world of digital media.
While I can understand the concerns related to overly multi-tasked behavior, I am bothered by the notion that a student’s interest in consuming piecemeal information as opposed to books is altogether bad.
Most of the students I grew up with never had the attention span to read books in the first place. They just had no other option. Digital media helps teachers adapt to a learning style that keeps more students engaged. The documentary visits a middle school in the South Bronx that has dramatically increased attendance and academic performance by embracing digital media. Some students still goof off, sending digital notes to friends as opposed to handwritten ones, but more of them are participating in academic dialogue as well.
Digital content may have even greater leverage in higher education. In the past few months, I’ve spoken to classes at Boston College and Harvard about the venture capital industry. I referred students interested in learning more about the space to blogs as opposed to books or periodicals.
If I were to create a syllabus for VC 101 in today’s world, my required reading would be less focused on textbooks and more on the blogs and twitter accounts written by industry leaders. I would direct students to the thoughts and real-time conversations of Marc Andreesen, Chris Dixon, Bill Gurley, Bijan Sabet, David Skok, Mark Suster, and Fred Wilson. For more structured content, I would point them to Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson’s AsktheVC. The content from these sources is current, interactive, and created from the front lines of the industry.
Books absolutely have their place in education and will in some form for eternity, but digital content can provide incremental and, in some cases, superior intellectual value. The amount of trash clouding the digital media landscape should not be allowed to obscure the treasure.
