Reading and Writing are Essential in Our Classrooms

In the article “The Dark Night of the Soul,” By Richard E. Miller, I understand what this author is trying to convey about reading and writing in the classroom, however, I am not sure I agree.   I believe much of the killings taking place in and out of our schools occur because of something much deeper than reading and writing.  Reading and writing are essential and does create deeper reflection about who we are in our society.  Yet just like anything presented to us, some will be effect and others will not.  There are always going to be people who go through the motion as students, disregarding the lessons being communicated.  Then there are others who will genuinely benefit from what is being taught in the classroom.   Pat Schroader argues that children isolate themselves from the world and get over-involved in the magic of technology instead of connecting with others in the real world.  However, as Miller points out these boys who masterminded the shooting spree at Columbine, were very connected to the world. He states,

 Harris and Kldebold, in fact wrote and produced for all different sorts of media, they read a range of material that supported their beliefs, and that taught them how /to put together their incendiary devices; they hung out with like-minded individuals and discussed their ideas.  They rely on writing to post their scathing observations about their peers on Harris’s Website; they composed poems in their creative writing class that their teacher described as “dark and sad”; they created a video for a class project in which they acted out their fantasy of moving through the school gunning down their tormentors.” He ends the paragraph with, ‘They read, they wrote, they talked. And in the end of the process, they tried to kill everyone they could.” 

These boys were connected to the world, but a world very different from our own.  And I think this same statement can be made for many of these young killers in the article.  For teachers to now doubt the presents of reading, writing and great literature in the classrooms because they believe it is not making a difference, would be committing the ultimate crime.  Unfortunately, the problem with these young killers has nothing to do with reading and writing in the classroom. In my opinion, their problems stem much deeper within them.  As discouraging as it must be for teachers to feel their efforts are meaningless, we must continue to expose and motivate students through literature.  Just imagine where we would be as a society without the many great readings and writings create in our culture.  These readings give us meaning into other societies and help us aspirer to be better people – sadly, there will be some we can never reach.

Lucinda

Read Full Post »

Bush’s Views on Technology

After reading the article “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush dated 1945, I felt like he was truly predicting the technology to come. I decided to write this after I went to class because I was unclear about a lot of his ideas. I wanted to hear other people’s input and combined with my own ideas, write a blog.

I liked how Bush talked about the advancements of a camera. At times, I felt like he was talking about a polaroid camera and the future of a digital camera (Bush, 2-3). Although Bush did not have the vocabulary to put a name to these future advances, he definitely knew what he was talking about.

After reading the article, “Strategies for Reading Critically” by Axelrod and Cooper, I tried to use the annotating strategies to read Bush’s article as well as Tim Berners-Lee article, “The World Wide Web”. I felt like it actually helped me to understand the article more. Probably because it forced me to really read, think, and question what I was reading.

When I was reading the article about the “World Wide Web” did anyone else feel like it was a ton of jargon? I had so much trouble getting through the acronyms, which weren’t explained by the way, just to get the gist. Luckily, I have lived with the W3 and the internet for some time so I understand it without understanding the jargon.

Overall, I thought it was amazing to see how the technology has changed from 1945 to 1993 to 2007. And it is only going to continue to change. God only knows what is next to come.

~Meg

Read Full Post »

Foreseen Advancements

After reading “As We May Think” by Vannewar Bush I am astounded with this scientist’s  insight towards the future and technology.  At the time he wrote this article, technology was just beginning but no where near the magnitude we’ve reached today.  When I sit and try to look towards the future and how technology will advance, I can only build on what already exist now.  Yet Vannevar predicted advancements that were not even in our view much less our thoughts. For example, he discussed a machine he named “the memex” and the capacity he sees this machine possibly containing  He goes on to say “….is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records [CD’s], and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.”  This machine he calls the “memex” is now our everyday computer.  Many of the advancements Vannewar discusses for instance photographs and how the “camera bound for the future” will have a walnut that will store the photocell and hundreds of photos.  This is now our digital camera. 

Vannewar had a gift of looking towards the future and envisioning the possibilities.  Many of these advancements he envisioned not only exist today but are the very fabric of our environment.   I only hope he lived long enough to see them become reality.

The other article “The World-Wide Web” was an expository on the internet.  If you are someone who wants to learn about the internet and its many features, this article is for you.  It went into great length about hypertext the advantages of having many different windows opened when researching a topic.    It also discussed the W3 and all of its many distinctions.  I think at the time this article was written, it provided useful information to individuals seeking some understanding with the World Wide Web and many of the features it provides.

Cheers

Lucinda

Read Full Post »

A New Literacy Agenda

The article “A New Literacy Agenda and Its Challenges” by Cynthia L. Selfe takes a slanted view on teachers and their lack of enthusiasm with integrating literacy and technology by stating,

 “My purpose is to convince teachers of English studies, composition, and language arts that we must turn our attention to technology and its general relationship to literacy education.  On the specific project to expand technological literacy, we must bring to bear the collective strength our profession and the broad range of intellectual skills we can muster as a diverse set of individuals.  The price we pay for ignoring this situation is the clear and shameful recognition that we have failed students, failed as humanists, and failed to establish an ethnical foundation for future educational efforts in this country.”  She goes on to say later in this essay, “This separation, after all. Has allowed us to use technology in our classrooms while generally absolving ourselves from the responsibility for planning for technology, thinking critically about technology, systematically assessing the value of technology, and making the difficult decisions associated with who pays for and has access to technology.” (p. 5 &11)

I understand the responsibility of educating children begins with the teacher but you cannot effectively teach technology if you don’t have the resources.  In the district I worked at for several years’ technology was taught by the computer teacher.  It was rare to find multiple computers in one classroom. Even now in my field experience classroom there is one computer.  How can you incorporate technology in your lessons when the districts cannot provide the resources both physically and professional?  The passage above places most of the blame on teachers and their lack of motivation instead of discussing why technology is not being implemented.  I spoke to the writing teacher in the district I am observing at now.  She would love to take her lessons into the world of cyber-writing, however, this option is not available for her or her students – this district like so many others can not absorb the cost of computers in the classroom nor do they have the funds to continually train teachers with the ever changing advancements of technology.  While I am sure there are some literacy educators who are reluctance to engage in this unknown technological world, there are many others eager to turn-in their paper and pencil lessons for writing in the 21^st century using technology but are unable due to the lack of resources.

As a teacher of the future I would love to have a technology component in all my content areas lessons – this is the new way of teaching.  To keep children engaged and excited about what they are learning we now need to enter their digital world and find ways of integrating this in our curriculum.  However before this can begin, we need to find ways of making technology more affordable for districts.

Cheers,

Lucinda

Read Full Post »