It's very easy to say that technology is one of the key factors to everyone's lives, whether we like to admit it or not. Personally, the three most important communication technologies would have to be email text messaging, and phone calls.
My preferred communication technology of choice is email. I find that through email you can reach a mass amount of people in an orderly and somewhat timely matter. Email is especially effective for me as a student; most of my professors will only respond to emails, especially if I'm enrolled in an online course. Emails are a lot more formal than text messaging, which I love, but, unlike text messages, can have a much longer response time.
In today's day and age, especially amongst the youth, text messaging is a blessing and a curse. For starters, it is possibly the fastest way to connect with someone at any given time or place with out having to make a phone call and (possibly) disturb the person one is trying to contact. The downside is that text messaging can be distracting and a nuisance to people around the person who is text messaging--or texting as we like to call it now. In my opinion, texting doesn't give me the same kind of satisfaction as actually talking with a person on the phone.
With the increased usage of emails and texting, it seems like we rarely use our phones for the one purpose it was originally intended for: making phone calls. I personally love talking on the telephone! Nothing is nicer than being able to call up my friends and loved ones to see how they're doing. I can't physically see their faces, but hearing their voices is the next best thing. Unfortunately, the use of phones to make actual phone calls is slowly but surely becoming less and less popular. We would rather send a text or an email than pick up the phone and talk to someone--or even talk to a person face to face.
As far as learning new information, I believe emails are my best tool. Again, as a student who frequently checks her email, I am subscribed to a multitude of online journals and news/pop culture websites. I get new information sent directly to me--without having to wait 2-3 business days for it to arrive in my mailbox. Email is an excellent tool for educational and recreational purposes.
In comparison to the students in the video, technologies have become some sort of "third hand"; I am always connected and, in a sense, I feel sort of naked with out it. It's fast, easy, and incredibly convenient. It's hard for me to think of a time when technology did not have a helping hand in my life. In contrast, the students in the video, my means of communication were mostly based on person-to-person contact, whereas their means of communication was through the masses, e.g social media and websites. Their technologies gave them the power to be creative; they are able to express themselves through their blogs and other "technologically hands-on" media.
I think that you have some really creative ideas for integrating the most recent cutting-edge 21st century into the classroom. Social media has become so important in our own lives. Many of our classmates listed it as an important technology in their Technology Autobiographies. I think that you are right in talking about how showing film adaptations of books can be problematic for students. However, I think it is the responsibility of the teacher to explain to students that the adaptations will be different and that they cannot say it is synonymous with the book. At the same time, I think that showing the film adaptation can be a critical thinking exercise as well. One instance is the book One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The book is first-person narration that focus on the silent Chief Bromden's observations of the mental institution which could be seen as a symbolic microcosm for American society. It involves a lot of the narrator's thoughts, especially with his paranoid preoccupations with "The Combine." On the other hand, the movie's narrative structure generally positions us through Randall McMurphy's perspective. The narrator Bromden plays a lesser role through the film. We do not get to see his inner thoughts and we do not see his paranoid thoughts. I think that you can compare and contrast the film adaptations to the book in order to show how the different narrative approaches between the book and the film can dramatically change (or not) our interpretations of the film. I think one of the coolest things about technology is that it provides us great ways to facilitate higher order understanding in a way that is interesting to students.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoy your ideas about making social media profiles for Shakespearean characters. Sure, there is the old way by using paper to create graphic organizers to
organize our information. I just find it so interesting that we could use social media profiles in order to try and get inside of the character's head. It just makes the
characters so realistic for us. It could possibly make us appreciate social media in new ways because students could consciously become aware of social media is truly an extension of our own identities. They have to work so hard to construct somebody else's identity through textual evidence. I think that it is cool that you are thinking of this as a way to try to make students understand the elements of characterization better. Through this, maybe students could better understand the complexities of Shakespeare's characters and perhaps appreciate the plays better. Your proposal to use Twitter as an "on-the-go" reminder for students also could work out pretty well because it is a true 21st century upgrade to gaining information. Technology has impacted the ways that we gain new information. We need to get rid of the stigmas associated with Twitter since it could perhaps improve student productivity. It is just a testament to the fact how ingrained social media has become in our own lives.
But I think another question you should possibly tackle in a future blog post about Shakespeare is how technology dramatically affects our ability to teach Shakespeare. People can so easily access a Sparknotes guide or a No Fear Shakespeare version. While I think that is a great thing that may increase the accessibility of Shakespeare, is there a possibility that it might affect the motivation for students to engage critically with Shakespeare's language? I think that your activities may be a great way to motivate students to engage with the technical specifics because social media can function as a very advanced graphic organizer in a way that may have them approach a Shakespearean text. You are using technology to give reluctant readers strategies, which I find is a very good thing that is pedagogically sound. I really enjoyed your post.