An extended review of a 2023 book by Jason Mills
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Pickwick, 2023. 212 pages. $30 (ebook $30)
Is the daily use of technology insidiously changing humans as a society? Have we become less compassionate, less connected and less cooperative as computers, cell phones and smart watches slowly seep into every aspect of our lives? Are computers and online education changing the way students learn?
As more educational institutions gradually move toward online learning, society is experiencing a radical shift in educational content and delivery. In his book Glassroom Learning, author Jason Mills grapples with the online\in-person tensions in education.
In addition, he delves into how student learning in pastoral programs are particularly affected through glass screen pedagogy as these programs require more than academia for success. He questions if ministerial students are being adequately prepared for competency in mentoring and compassion development.
Throughout his research, Mills proposes that online learning is creating deficiencies in character formation and self-differentiated leadership. Mills provides an overview of online education with technology as a formal instrument. He asserts that at the intersection of technology and education, there is a shift in societal behaviours and brain development.
Moreover, skill development, capacity for human judgment and perceived reality are also in rapid decline as student attention is focused less on instructors. Technology is creating more isolation, depression, and procrastination, causing performance and social wellbeing to worsen.
When applying these studies of technological effects on student learning, Mills pursues how emotional systems are additionally affected in ministerial formation. Pastoral studies, once designed to teach students to be in a two-way relationship with their clientele, now have a third component in their relationship, that being their computer, smart phone or tablet.
Students are emotionally fused to their devices which in turn nurtures anxious pastoral leaders who are unable to self-differentiate. Students lack practice with real relationships, in-person mentors and the modelling of character development when learning online.
In subsequent chapters, this book delves into greater detail of how chronic anxiety is heightened with the use of technology in education. With the help of various authors’ work in anxiety and leadership, Mills pairs chronic anxiety with the Bowen Family Systems Theory.
First, he differentiates between acute and chronic anxiety, stating that chronic anxiety relates to a person’s inability to regulate one’s own emotional capacity and is a regressive emotional process that causes people to become more invasive, secretive, and reactive. Chronic anxiety replaces careful thought with blame, herd instinct, quick fixes and weakened leadership.
Next, chronic anxiety is tied to the Bowen Family Systems Theory. This theory postulates that when two people are in a relationship and tensions arise, one of them often reaches out to a third party for help in order to alleviate or diminish the stress or anxiety of the relationship. This triangulation can help stabilize the relationship.
Yet, when the third party is now technology, chronic anxiety is not being alleviated, nor is balance being restored in the relationship. Online interfaces and devices acting as third-party support negatively affect a student’s emotional process, causing the student to suffer in their ability to show empathy and establish rapport. Students are less likely to be able to self-differentiate; that is, they lose their sense of self or autonomy.
Furthermore, they think less objectively for themselves and become more reliant on the ideas of others, less able to choose a side, and have a tendency to depend on technology for their opinions and narrative.
When online, students of Christian ministry also experience this chronic anxiety in the triangulation of their devices. These students are often found working against everything that is being modelled and taught to them. Christian ministerial education is countercultural where differentiation leads to greater humility and wisdom. Being able to see oneself as an individual, as God sees each one, is essential for growth and spiritual maturity.
As well, students fused to their devices become impervious to outside events that require adaptation and change. This, in turn, leads to greater anxiety and depression.
The increased use of the Internet decreases family communication, and it increases loneliness and greater psychological dysfunction. Christian ministry is designed to teach students to be more compassionate, lead with increased understanding of others and be able to help others to self-differentiate.
Yet, these students are less flexible, less adaptable, and more emotionally dependent on others. None of these outcomes are part of pastoral education. In fact, they are seemingly combative and antagonistic. Students are no longer learning the subject matter they have intended to study, and correspondingly, are becoming the group they intended on helping within a society.
This book has intriguing insights for educational institutions that do not realize that technology is not neutral in its effects on social behaviour. Technology plays a central role in human and societal development and has a profound impact on our interconnected world. The research and results explained throughout this book will truly underscore your everyday awareness of the role technology is playing throughout every aspect of your life.
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