About a month ago I did a facebook fast. I told myself I
could not sign on for two weeks because it was consuming my time. The first
couple days were tricky; it was a complete reflex to sign on to facebook. But
after the first week I had so much time to do other things, it was liberating!
It was odd to think though that people were not being updated about my life,
they had no idea where I was or what I was doing. I was into the wild! But
sadly to say I am back on the radar and facebooking away. We are addicted to technology.
Those videos done by Michael Wesch are completely true! In
class we are either facebooking, texting, or tuning out the professor by some
form of device. I regrettably can pass a class by going to the lectures, taking
a few dinky notes and reading a couple chapters. I love to learn but I get so
bored listening to the professor talk for three hours when we cannot have any
participation. Most students are in the same boat as me. We know having a
degree is important so we go get one, but do we actually learn anything while
receiving it? I like classes like this where I can learn by a video, read some
interesting articles then blog about it.
Here is the truth: A
professor has earned the right to stand before hundreds of students and teach
them. The problem is we are not an audience anymore that can be persuaded by a
rhetor just standing there and lecturing to us. We need technology involved in
our learning. In Geisler’s et al-l-Text article he says, “Rhetorical
theory provides a repertoire of moves and strategies that
can be combined to create effective
experiences for readers: repetition, emotion, narrative, segmentation, use of
visuals and graphics, authority, and patterns of reasoning (Perelman and
Olbrechts-Tyteca). These can be adapted to IText to give producers and users
the best chance of connecting in productive and meaningful ways.” If a
professor wants to be effective in teaching us they need to use technology in a
way that keeps our focus. It is not our professor’s job to force us to learn
but it is their job to teach us the best they can and that involves molding
into these new methods.
In the Pencils to Pixels article by
Baron, continually he states that these amazing inventors were against new
innovations. The truth is though that writing technologies will never stop
evolving. Pencils will always be necessary but in some circumstances using a
computer to type a paper is faster. In a decade something will be faster then
typing on a computer, this is how our world works. I keep stating this but I am
a film a major and one of the key things they teach us is to never stop
evolving with new technology because things are becoming outdated fast and we
will be outdated with it if don’t keep moving. This video is a perfect example
of how photography will soon be replaced by film and technology (Outside Magazine).
It is the same idea with learning in the classroom. We need to be innovative in
teaching in a new way!
The last two articles have a lot in common with last weeks Intertextualty. We get ideas from bits
and pieces of other author’s thoughts. In the wikipedia piece by Kohl, he
discusses how “Opinions and considerations of different authors flow into a
text… knowledge is not obtained in Wikis but designed in the tacklement with
the positions of other participants during an interactive and collaborative
writing process.” When people create a wikipedia page they are pulling
information from a million sources to make one idea. It is awesome!
Overall the Pencils to Pixels article was my favorite because I
love history and learning about innovation. I personally believe that we need
to evolve with technology. But what is your guy’s opinion? Should college
students get over our professors teaching styles or should professor making
more innovative in the way they teach?
Yo! Savannah haha. I didn't know you was taking this class. I liked the Baron Article as well, and dude technically tech is trying more hybrid things these days than anything, I mean you can write with a pencil, or use a computer to record your key strokes.. or you can write on a computer recording your pencil strokes. ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTLE7U6rzOc
I thought that was cool that you can use a pen to write on a computer screen.
As far as College students goes, I think that professors are more disconnected from students than they should be. Everyone in the film department calls us by our first names and we actually talk with them and befriend them. Where as in other classes I've taken outside of the films courses, the teachers are very disjointed and don't try to manipulate their tactics to make the learning environment more suitable for different types of learning processes (viewing visuals, hands on, textual,etc) Also, I would just like to say that one teacher I had a few summers ago was a total sexist. She hated the dudes, and didn't hesitate to ridicule anything they wrote. And she totally prized the females, and would try and get them to tough out the course and complete it. She didn't do that with me when I dropped the course; she just took my form and signed it without even looking at me at all. (and also blew smoke at me, fo realsies yo) So certain social issues as well come into play while in a learning environment.(though most will not admit it) So there are many obsticles when it comes to changing a teaching style, and even with students whose issues extend beyond the university arena; and professors would need to accomodate for such things as well. Its a labyrinth of crazy really.
I completely agree with you Savanna. Today students require much more involvement in the classrooms rather than just a professor standing in the front lecturing. In my education courses that I took for secondary Ed. it was required that we take Technology in the Classroom. This course not only taught but encouraged the new generation of teachers to utilize technology in their classrooms as much as possible as long as it was effective to student learning. College professor who beleive in only uses chalkboards and quizzes should try to integrate more technology into their lecutres as well.
ReplyDeleteSavannah, thanks for that link! It does some interesting things, and I can see ways I should be using it in future courses. Really nice find.
ReplyDeleteChris your in my class! yay for summer courses haha. Actually this class is not too bad. I agree with you guys how technology should be expanded in the class room and used if it will help student learning.
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