This reading, again, is going to cause me to become the
cynical asshole of the class and question the necessity of some of this. Nancy
Bailey is kind of saying the same thing that all of the other readings have
discussed thus far.
Yes, technology should be used in the classroom. Yes,
contemporary students respond well to multimodal approaches. Yes, teachers need
to be aware of the literary practices that their students are engaging in
outside of school (referenced here as a “New literacy stance” with an “insider
mindset.”). Yes, this raises questions about the repercussions of the inclusion
of these technologies. Yes, which technologies we should incorporate versus
which ones we should not is a valid concern.
Ready for the cynicism? Here goes:
In one of my classes, I sit between 2 girls. They are
substantially younger than me; it is a depressing and ongoing theme in my life
currently. The girl to my right keeps her cellphone in her field of vision
constantly. It amuses me to no end because the method she uses to take it out
of screen save mode is a petting motion. And she checks it at least 5 times
every minute, even though it is on vibrating mode and it never vibrates. I can
almost hear her saying “My preeeeeeeecious….”
Ok, maybe that last part is in my head. But she covets the
thing.
The girl to my left is even more impressive. She never has
less than 3 forms of technology in front of her. Texting during class is an
offense not even worth mentioning. One time, while my professor was lecturing,
this person watched an entire video about puppies. I shit you not, an entire video about puppies. The volume
was off, she was not wearing earphones, and there were no subtitles. No content
was necessary, just moving images of puppies. And texting. And Twitter. And
Facebook. Fittingly, I am fairly certain that the one thing she wasn’t doing was following the lecture.
While I appreciate the goals of teachers like Carol Olsen, I
just can’t get completely on board with the “Spoonful of sugar” concept. I do
believe that education does not have to be a boring thing. I do believe that
not all children have the intrinsic desire to be educated, and that teachers
must aspire to create engaging lessons for things that are sometimes not outwardly
engaging. But I also believe that there is real value in muscling through
something that is difficult and less engaging. There is beauty in the results as
well.
End rant.
