By the middle part of the 20th century philosophers and an increasing number of scientists began to argue that people needed to see themselves as not only connected to all of humanity but to the planet itself. The German philosopher and Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer reasoned that people should develop a philosophy based on what he termed “reverence for life,” embracing with compassion all forms of life. Schweitzer believed the rights of nature do not have to come at the expense of humans. In fact they are supportive of one another and interconnected. This is a theme that was well described decades before by the Native American Chief Seattle when he stated in the 19th century: “This we know. All things are connected like the blood that unites one familyÉWhatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

It is towards this larger interconnected sense that we should try to channel the use of information communication technologies in education. At their very best, ICTs break down barriers to the cross-fertilization of ideas. The most successful use of technology in classrooms, at least among adolescents and older students, facilitates an interdisciplinary approach to learning. In short, these technologies have the power to help young people see new relationships between themselves and the world of which they are a part. Children, through the Web, are increasingly witnesses to the interconnected nature of knowledge. For example, anyone who does a Web search on global warming or environmental change will quickly discover that these issues are defined by a powerful synthesis of scientific evidence from a number of disciplines as diverse as climatology, archeology and epidemiology.

Yet, it is important to point out, children need help in understanding not only the content of different disciplines but how these concepts can come together into a whole. Traditionally, academic thinking has held that any complex set of phenomena or patterns of behavior can be defined or explained by breaking them down into their constituent parts. For example, the activities of nations could be understood in terms of the behavior of individual leaders. However, it is now clear to scholars in a range of fields that this reductionist approach to understanding is far too simplistic to explain most phenomena and behavior. Ultimately, for education to help young people respect both human rights and the rights of nature it requires schools to help students see how important concepts from different disciplines come together to make a coherent whole. Education needs to move beyond analysis towards synthesis.

At a policy level this would require the setting of an educational agenda that put the interest of the national environment on par with more traditional economic, political and social issues. It is necessary to see these issues as equal in significance and interconnected. Few governments can politically set an agenda that touches on such contentious issues on their own so we advocate following the United Nations effort at issuing the Declaration of Human Rights following the Second World War. This could be achieved, for example, by adding an educational component to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. At the national and local levels the current expenditures in money and professional expertise being invested on the infusion of technology into the classroom could also be used to get educators, students and the general public to ask themselves what the ultimate goal of their investment in all this technology really is. In far too many cases governments have simply invested in technology and put it into a classroom for teachers and students to figure out what to do with it on their own, and in a few cases some do a phenomenal job of putting the technology to use.

But the evidence on effective use of ICTs in schools and businesses shows success is usually the result of a plan, solid leadership, and programs for staff development. A key component of such teacher development programs should be an introduction into the relationship of human learning to human rights and to the rights of nature. These programs could be based on the experiences of foundations in East-Central Europe that have worked with teachers and students at the grassroots level across many countries to develop and support the strengthening of civil society. In summary, there needs to be a two-pronged approach to the effort – 1) the setting of the agenda at the international level, and 2) the sharing of the agenda at the grassroots level. All of this could be facilitated by the use of ICTs in classrooms. It is just this sort of model for social change that has been used to build respect for international law and human rights over the past 50 years. It is now appropriate to use this model to strengthen respect for the natural environment as well.

Bibliography

Abbott, John, Ryan, Terry. (2001). The Unfinished Revolution: Learning, Human Behavior, Community, and Political Paradox. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Press.

Ehrlich, Paul R. (2000) Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Washington, DC: A Shearwater Book.

Musial, Stanislaw. (May 2001) “So Earth Does Not Become a Desert.” Krakow: Tygodnik Powszechny.

OECD. (2000) Education Policy Analysis 1999. Paris: OECD Publications.

Postman, Neil. (1992) Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books.

Rauch, Jonathan. (January 2001) “The New Economy: Oil, computers, and the reinvention of the Earth.” New York: The Atlantic Monthly.

Seely Brown, John, Duguid, Paul. (2000) The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Stevenson, Leslie and David Haberman. (1998) Ten Theories of Human Nature: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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