Interactivity #3

Going into this project, I was with the mindset that finding technologies for teaching English would be difficult because we don’t rely on computers, or other technologies like that.  That misconception was quickly shattered when I discovered a website with many different lists, and techniques for incorporating technology into an English classroom (www.tewt.com).  I quickly learned that technology doesn’t equal electronics.  In an education setting, a technology is more like a tool.  Technologies such as Discussion boards and collaborative writing parallel the kind of work we did with this exercise.  They use group work to achieve a common end product. I was happy to see that we included Google Docs in our technologies, because we won’t know the potential of technologies until we actually try them ourselves.  One of my favorite technologies that I found was a comic book.  A comic book is such a great way for students to analyze a story map because it incorporates visuals, and also the literacy aspect that every student has to master.  The most interesting find was that technologies are not housed solely within an electronic device.  A technology such as Wordle (a website that formulates word clouds) is an exercise that can be done without a computer.  Then there were technologies such as Ning and Edmodo (educational social media).  With these technologies, a student could create a profile for a famous author or character and practice their literacy skills again!  The potential for the use of technologies is infinite and requires minimal effort to incorporate it in an effective way.  Now that I have accumulated a list of different technologies I can use in my classroom, this list has become a technology for me to use.

Interactivity #2

Instructional television seems to have been the most influential form of technology during this particular time period.  The entire clip seemed to revolve around its evolution, usage and benefits.  This leads me to question as an English teacher, what place would this have in my classroom today?  From what I could gather in the video, the instructional television was the center of learning.  If learning came from this media, what role did books play when all learning centered on watching television?  This reduces the importance of reading and analyzing in an English classroom because televisions are made the most important teaching tool.  Since the nation wanted to stress science and math instead of English, was diverting attention from literature to television the government’s method to accomplish this task.  Technology does not always have to be beneficial in the classroom, especially if the instructor does not know how to properly make use of the material to connect with their subject area.

            Television/film has had a great impact in teaching English because of it’s difficulty in usage.  Many teachers of the past used television incorrectly.  They would just use “TV programs as a time-filler or show a movie as a reward for good behavior rather than use it as a text for critical analysis” (Domine 46).  Even when television took an educational turn with Channel One news, the teachers had “no control over the programming, and couldn’t really use it as part of the classroom curriculum” (46).  Historic films can be made objective; however, when it comes to transferring literature to the big screen, accuracy is sacrificed, as classic canon is traded for Hollywood action shots that will generate revenue.  Students have to make a decision because television entices them to watch more exciting films rather than the accurately depicted ones. For those of you that have seen Easy A, Emma Stone’s character explains how one movie version of the Scarlet Letter is accurate, while the other one just has Demi Moore talk “in a fake British Accent and [take] a lot of baths.”  She continues to say that saying that this version “was freely adapted would be a bit of an understatement.” Grace’s mother said that “the more the students liked a film, the less they learned from it” (44).  When we show our students books turned films, are we showing them what the author intended to see, or what consumerism forced the book to become?  Its not whether the book is better than the movie, but how accurate does the movie portray the book?

Even when educational programming was attempted, the interview states that it was very limited; sometimes broadcasts would be of music recitals, how to pronounce words in French, or how to correctly brush teeth (45).  But how does that show themes in a book, characterization, or how to analyze plot?  Television can be applied for many different materials; however, English teachers are very limited in the way they can utilize this technology.  Oftentimes, as stated above, television is used incorrectly.

(I complied the images together to make this image and added the quote as well)

WORKS CITED

Domine, Vanessa. "A Social History of Media, Technology and Schooling." The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education 1 (2009): 42-52. JMLE. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .

Domine, Vanessa. "Rethinking Technology in Schools Primer." New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Print.

Easy A. Dir. Will Gluck. Perf. Emma Stone. Screen Gems, 2010. DVD

IMAGES FOUND USING GOOGLE:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 

Boy standing in front of door 

Alice in Wonderland Movie Poster 

Just Too Much Information

I stumbled across this article while doing research for another class, and was taken aback by the relevance that it has to my life at this time.  Moments before finding this article, I had read Dr. Domine's posting about online professionalism, and I found Pamela Paul's article in The New York Times about posting too much personal information on the internet. 

"There are things I'd rather just not know about you," Paul says to open her article; she complains how people in this age share too much information that does not need to be shared.  She compares the shared information to a "lodged piece of corn," never to be unseen or forgotten.

With this in mind, as future educators we must proceed with utmost caution regarding the material that we post to our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.  (you take your pick on your favorite form of social media); however, no matter the playing field, the rules never change.  Once something is posted on the internet, it can no longer be removed.  It is important for us to make the right decisions about how we want to be perceived by others in a professional environment. 

Perception is the key to success anywhere.  Perception is what gives a potential employer their first impression of us.  Paul says that something we believe to be "witty, original and winning often comes across to the rest of the world as sloppily confessional, self-promotional or trite."  We may be doing postings for our personal enjoyment, and self-expression, but we cannot control who views our material, or what their interpretation of our beliefs are.

We must not only monitor what we post ourselves, but also what others post on our walls or profiles.  Walls and profiles are a direct affiliation of the owner of said object.  The article also quotes Adam Werbach; he says that “People will post things on my Facebook walls — political statements that are just strange — religious rants that don’t reflect my values,” but because of the liberty that the internet allots to people, he cannot control the views of his friends and that may form a misconception to anyone who reads his posts.

Technology may not only be a tool that could be detrimental to a student's learning ability, it can also be detrimental to the new teacher seeking employment.  Just like technology can be beneficial to a student when it is learned to be used properly, so can technology aid the teacher in the classroom.  Not only do students need to obtain a literacy for technology so that there is an equal balance between social and educational technology, but so does the future employee.  We need to reach a point where we either don't use technology for social media purposes and have "TMI" on our profiles, or learn--like the student--how to create a balance between technology for educational purposes and entertainment. 

Needless to say, the information she covers is quite haunting to think about as it relates to the future job hunt. I sit here writing this now, thinking frantically: Is there something on my Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr (the list is ongoing) that would make me an unfavorable candidate for a job?  The profile we created was our responsibility to maintain, and now it is our responsibility to make sure that it does not stand in the way of us getting a job.  While the article has a hint of humor, the matters it covers are very very real, and very applicable to us.

If anyone is interested in reading the article, here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/fashion/tmi-i-dont-want-to-know.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=all