Can we control what we become?

When I was first exposed to Marshall McLuhan as an undergraduate, I was sure he was crazy, another academic making predictions about future technologies. At that time, it was all too confusing for me to comprehend. Now, as a college professor I look to Marshall McLuhan’s theories with respect and awe.
The Horizon Report mentions emerging technologies that will have a large impact on teaching, learning and creative expression. These technologies have created the “global village” that McLuhan so often mentioned. They make the world a smaller place by allowing us to see what we could not see, collaborate with those we could not reach, access information in a keystroke that we would have had to wait for, network with others around the globe with similar interests, and enable us to address all learning styles on one computer screen. Clearly, technology has broken down boundaries that previously existed. But, might we have created new ones?
The technologies mentioned in the Horizon Report could be used in combination to teach a distance learning class. Students use an online space to get lectures and materials that are enhanced by podcasts, weblinks, and mashups. They communicate with the professor and their classmates via email, text or instant messaging, synchronous or asynchronous discussions and online chats. Several class meetings occur via a video webcast where students use eyeball cameras and mics on their computers to see and talk to other members of the class in real time. Additionally, they are able to push URL’s to direct the class to topic related websites and can bring up previously created presentations and documents that can be presented to the class or become a shared document that the entire class can contribute to with the click of a mouse. Technology, in conjunction with thoughtful and creative design, can produce a wonderful learning experience. Many of us in education go forward with excitement and hope, but at the same time wonder what we might be loosing.
Taking an entire class on line is very convenient but if we don’t have to be in the presence of another individual won’t we miss the human contact? Having online discussions gives us more time for a thoughtful response but if we don’t hear another person’s voice, won’t we lack emotion in our own? We save money on paper and ink if we do not have to print out an assignment and physically hand it to the teacher but won’t we begin to miss holding our own work in our hands? Collaboration gives us a wider perspective but if all work becomes a group effort won’t we miss having something that is our own?
As McLuhan says, “ We become what we behold.” Perhaps our biggest challenge as forward-thinking educators is not the technology itself but the inclusion of technology into our teaching environments. Can we find a way to control what we become? Can technology expand our knowledge and our learning but not “amputate” those things that we feel are critical to human nature?