This question came up in my technology class: how do you plan on incorporating the use of modern technology into your future classroom? I thought it would be a simple question at first when I remembered my own high school English literature classrooms, but the more I thought about it, the more hazy it seemed.
Times are changing now, faster than ever, and it only seems that things will accelerate. Nine years ago, in 2000, I remember how the internet was just another possible tool for research while email was something that could be checked occasionally, but certainly not regularly. Oh, and using the internet required clogging my parents’ phone line, as we had dial-up. By 2003 I was checking my email everyday, by 2004 I was using social networking, Now, in 2009, all of my classes rely on the internet for either assignments, course materials, or both. If I go so much as half a day without access to email I fear that I may develop nervous rashes, like a coveting addict. In 2000, I did not have or want a cellular phone. Now, I am reliant on cell phone calls and text messaging, eagerly anticipating the time when I can get a blackberry to give myself even more regular email and internet access. Also, my 11 year-old nephew has had a cellular phone now for one year! My point is that I know that technology will continue to develop rapidly, and it would be foolish to even think I can accurately predict how I will be using it come 2012!
S0 how will I use technology in what I currently envision as my future classroom? I am struggling with this now, partly out of fear of the unknown, as I know technology is rapidly changing our classroom dynamics, and partly from what I remember in my English classes in high school. I remember in my high school English classes where my classes were all completely discussion based, some students took a "high tech" approach and relied on the web site sparknotes.com to not only substitute the reading (with the chapter summaries), but also used the discussion points as their own contributions for class. I know that whatever materials were available eight years ago are only tip of the iceberg for what is available now. Having access to such material can be great for students, especially with deeper readings like Faulkner, where treading through them can become a great chore. Students can use these resources honorably to help them navigate through dense readings, but just as easily, students can find ways to avoid doing the actual reading and the actual thinking by abusing these websites. Eventhough I can try to lift discussions above this by questioning students on their contributions to discussions, probing them to the core of their reasoning, I worry about ensuring that the students do the actual readings in the actual text. The actual text is irreplaceable. I can envision a future classroom where all students have their own phones/computers granting access both at home and in the classroom to all the robotic thinking the world wide web has to offer! As a future literature teacher, this is one of my greatest fears. I remember how hard it was sometimes to motivate myself to do the readings for class, and consequently, how easy taking the shortcut on sparknotes.com was!
One thing I venture to say that I actually know about the future is that my students will know more about technology and how to use it than I will. I am starting to understand that as a teacher, I will need to keep up with it and keep my fingers on the ever heating pulses of how high school teachers will incorporate this technology into the classroom. I will need to find a way to use technology to get my students on board with me to explore the literature with even more knowledge and background on the text than I ever had. I dream of technology supporting and inspiring my students to develop their critical thinking and open their minds, progressing them both as thinkers and writers. I can only begin to imagine the possibilities of what technology in the classroom can do for helping students understand the history, background, culture, and setting of the literary works we'll talk about in class. This way, technology could be used to excite and inspire the students while offering a much better background for understanding the texts than the simple lectures I got in high school. Still, the “old-fashioned” side of me is also the cynical side, and I see technology giving students too many ways around the intense practice that is required to truly benefit from a humanities class. This makes technology seem like something that must be harnessed, censored even. I observed a classroom in Redford, MI, where students permitted to use the computers in class were on a myriad of websites, ranging from the actual online assignments, further reading, facebook, and Wikipedia (the Paul Rudd page). I didn’t groan out loud, but I did foresee an uphill battle, and one that I will only come to understand better with more knowledge on the issue.
Concluding question: What roles should technology play in the literature classroom so that students' intellectual development is not stunted, yet we are still keeping with the times?
Adam
Adam,
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments. It is true that technology will continue to change rapidly and that the students will often be ahead of the teachers. I also worry about how I will be able to keep up with the students. Hopefully, we will continue to challenge our assumptions and learn new things throughout our tenures as educators. It's also interesting to see how technology is changing not only education and society as a whole, but the world of literature as well.
Great questions, Adam. Let me essay the matter of worries that students may not actually read the books that you'll be working with in class. I'll start with the "cold comfort" that spark notes came in book form before they were available on the web. Such problems, and such temptations have been ever with us. So, let me start by asking you *why* it's so very important that the students actually read the book? If they can go to a website and get the information, or the questions, or the stuff of great comments, why shouldn't they? Since I am highly sympathetic to your concern, let me flip the question around...what would they miss if they don't actually read the book. Maybe we have to "unpack" the word "read," eh? See all the words? Mouth them to oneself? When you talk about reading, Adam, you're talking about an experience that runs much deeper? Should your students hear the words? Declaim them? To what extent is reading an auditory experience? To what extent is it social? To what extent is it a kind of theatre? Any of the above, even in small measures? Maybe you'll need to disclose a little bit about what reading does for you or, better yet, maybe you'll have to figure out a way to show your students.
ReplyDeleteHow might you do that?
Where are the learning opportunities here, anyway? By this I mean, what kinds of intellectual or social or personal experiences might you want your students to have? What would you like them to be thinking about as a consequence of whatever it is that they might do for your class, or whatever it is that you might do together, or that they might do with their classmates?
For example, if the thought opportunity has to do with what you might miss by relying on some person's analysis of Huck Finn (rather than figuring out what you think, or struggling to ask questions that you hope might help you to figure out what you think) then perhaps you need to figure out a way to make that point more palpable. Has anyone written a guide to visitors for the town where you teach? What do the authors have to say about your city, or their favorite restaurant, or whatever? Or, what do people say about kids who go to your school? What are THEY like? Maybe thinking about all the ways that people, under the cover of authority lent by their words being in print, can be so terribly WRONG?
Well, there's not much question that your words get your readers thinking, Adam!! Well done.
Reading information and summaries from sites like SparkNotes are worse than the shortcuts they are seen to be. The experience and practice of coming to discover the same information, in practice, is lost. Though it may not seem like a huge concern, these courses, books, exercises, and school itself is a training period. Will you directly use the information or skills? Maybe. But the real caveat is that you become more efficient at extracting information and doing things yourself. This is the area where 'services' like Sparknotes hurt. So in the end, I don't really have an answer for your question. However, is 'keeping up with the times' worth giving up good old-fashioned learning? I think you should lay down the law in your classroom =).
ReplyDeleteHi Adam,
ReplyDeleteI had wanted to comment on the sparknotes debate when we were discussing it in class a couple weeks ago. At least in as far as your concern that you won't know if your students are cheating by using what's available to them on the Web, I think that will come with time (with or without tech savvy). I recall in my experience working at the newspaper and combing through the incoming letters to the editor, that you come to recognize what is real, genuine, thoughtful work, and what is, in the case of a letter to the editor, a form letter or mass produced piece of propaganda that someone signed their name to. I imagine veteran teachers recognize academic stuff of the same sort a mile away, and even novices like us probably won't take long to wise up to all the tricks out there.