83
Volume:
2019
,
February

Our Robots, Ourselves

Submitted By:
Meghan Tally, Windward School, Los Angeles, CA

Why Doctors Hate Their Computersby Atul Gawande
The New Yorker, November 12, 2018

It isn’t so much that robots are replacing us but that advances in technology can make us behave more like robots ourselves, Atul Gawande suggests. He writes about medical professionals' software systems both increasing constraints on how doctors do their jobs and taking time away from human interactions. Educators (and others, across vocations) may find his descriptions eerily familiar, as our own systems are increasingly computerized. Software systems set out to simplify and streamline our work, to make information easier to access, and to make us more efficient in assessing how we’re doing for whole groups of people, not just individuals. In other words, they tend to be good for clients (i.e., patients and students) and good for administrators, yet bad for practitioners (i.e., doctors and teachers). There is inevitable conflict, Gawande concedes, between "our network connections and our human connections," yet we need "systems that make the right care simpler for both patients and professionals [...] in ways that strengthen our human connections, instead of weakening them." Gawande has at least one beautiful solution: for our systems to become more flexible and customizable, with applications professionals need to enhance their practice. As educators and especially school leaders make choices about online learning management systems, human resource software, and record-keeping software, they should keep in mind Gawande’s philosophically profound yet practical and relationship-oriented framework.

Categories
Technology
Leadership Practice