The End of Book Learning?

Text and E-Reader Reflection

 

Reflection on the “Vlog” Experience

I had though before that vlogging my ideas would be easier, because I am the sort of person who prefers to explain, and have things explained, verbally. Recording myself was more time consuming than I thought, however, and came with a fair number of disadvantages to typing out a reflection. For one, editing video is much more difficult than editing text. If you make a mistake, you have to record that part again, which is why I tried to break up the recordings into chunks. You may have noticed an awkward moment when I forgot the word “Imag-u-cation” and spliced in a clip to avoid re-recording four or so minutes. Also, if you have ever had to speak to a unresponsive audience, you will understand why I have that excruciatingly uncomfortable look on my face.

In spite of the downsides, I felt more engaged creating this video than trying to organize my thoughts into perfectly punctuated paragraphs. Hopefully, with more practice, making videos will feel more comfortable and I will be able to put my new skill to use in the classroom.

Digital Wisdom and the Widening Net

I can remember a time when the Internet almost seemed like a toy. Sometimes, I used it to look up information for a school report, but I spent most of my precious “minutes” chatting with my friends and searching for pictures of my favorite movie stars, which I subsequently printed out and tacked all over my room. Even as a teenager, I still listened to my music on CDs, watched the news on the television, and did all of my shopping in stores. The way I interact with the Net today would probably shock 2004 me.

Between my iPhone and laptop, I have no problem believing Carr’s 2009 statistic that Americans in their twenties spent more than 17 hours per week on the Internet (2010, p. 82). In the sixth paragraph of chapter five, he says:

Everything I do, and everything my students will experience, is enhanced by the Internet. Though I would say Carr is careful not to imply a strong bias against new technology, it seems to me that he is wary of the way the ubiquity of the Internet affects our brains. Actually, this is quite evident from the title; since when is “shallow” a positive characteristic? However, I am not disturbed by the new tendency to “dip in and out of a series of texts” (Carr, 2010, p 86). While concentration is a valuable skill, perhaps it does not need to be applied in every learning circumstance.

This week is the first that I can say I appreciated Prensky’s outlook more that Carr’s. I am enjoying the developing theme of Digital Wisdom, and in his fifth chapter, Prensky (2012) suggests ways we can be more digitally wise in our personal and professional lives. He also reflects on the trade-offs we make by using new technology in place of old habits. One wise tip I plan to try is to cultivate relationships with savvier “tech partners” with whom I can discuss new uses for my devices and troubleshoot problems (Prensky, 2012, loc 3502). Most of all, I appreciate Prensky’s (2012) general encouragement throughout the chapter to find the blend of digital tools that is useful to me, and not necessarily chase after the newest products and developments (loc 3505).

I am very excited to read the next chapter “Teaching Digital Wisdom” to get more specific advice relevant to my chosen profession.

Taking both texts together, and considering the article I read this week about Universal Design for Learning, I think my classroom take-away for the week is that it is necessary to balance of many different types of media and technology. Reading passages of text, either from a book or e-reader, will still have a place in my classroom, if for no other purpose than to teach students how to “concentrate intently” and “lose oneself” (Carr, 2010, p 59). However, I also want to use video, web exploration, and other media activities to engage different types of thinking and prepare kids for the technologies they will be using in their future lives and careers.

E-Reader Reflection

I mostly used my iPhone Kindle app to read this week. Though the smaller screen has its disadvantages, I am almost never separated from my phone, which makes studying on-the-go that much easier. I also feel that the iPhone screen is more responsive than that of my Kindle, so highlighting is a bit easier. I noticed that lately, highlights and notes I make on my phone are syncing to my Kindle device, but not my PC app for some reason. This is particularly unfortunate, because I usually use my iPhone and Kindle to do all the reading , and just refer back to the PC version to review. I plan to troubleshoot this week, so if anyone has experienced this before, let me know.

Sources:

Carr, N. (2010). The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain Gain. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishers.

Issues and Advances in Educational Technology: Module Two Reflection

In this week’s reading from Brain Gain (2012), Marc Prensky expands upon the theme of “digital wisdom” by providing examples of emerging technologies that examines the extent that they may contribute “brain gain” and/or “digital wisdom.” Analyzing the subject of technological advances in this way definitely takes away some of the unease I felt beginning this book. I am still not comfortable with the possibility of pharmaceuticals being prescribed to enhance our brains, but I am beginning to see that this might be my own personal “yuck factor” bias. I enjoyed the sections on “Brain Gain and Digital Wisdom from Combining Mind and Technology to Improve our Relations with other People” and “Brain Gain and Digital Wisdom from Combining Mind and Technology to Involve our Whole Planet,” because as social beings, I think we improve greatly when we can have more meaningful interactions with each other.

In chapter three of The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains (2010), Nicholas Carr describes the four technology groups, and the impact of “Intellectual Technologies” on our brains. While I have long accepted that maps and books are forms of technology (digital or not), I had not considered before that written systems of language are technologies as well. As a future English teacher, and student of several world languages, I find it interesting that different ways of recording language shape the brain in different ways, and that our language is changing based on interaction with technology. I also thought about how written language was a big advancement for ancient society, but it is so much an intrinsic part of my everyday life that I cannot imagine a world without it. I wonder if elderly Sumerians, who had spent their lifetimes using counting tokens and and painted images to record their thoughts, were as wary of cuneiform as my grandma is of e-mail.

Come to think of it, I am not sure I am as fluidly comfortable with many of today’s technologies as my children and grandchildren will be. I still like to go backpacking out in the wilderness, and part of the appeal is that I am separated from my digital devices. Obviously, technology is still following me, because the average outdoor enthusiast never goes without matches, a knife, and a compass, so what is it about cellular service and glowing screens that I am so eager to leave behind? Even though we had a personal computer in my house when I was quite young, I am starting to wonder if the fact that I did not start interacting with digital media on a daily basis until adulthood makes it less meaningful to me.

I have to admit, though, I might start bringing my Kindle backpacking with me. I have a Paperwhite, which has a built-in adjustable light, making it ideal for nighttime and beach reading. I have really appreciated the light, and the device’s light weight, as these features make it possible for me to read my assignments where ever I am, whenever I have a spare minute or two. I usually use my iPhone or Kindle to read through the chapters, then I go back and review my notes and highlights on my PC. I learned this week that the iPhone App lets me “favorite” especially important highlights by selecting a blue star.

Screenshots of highlights from Brain Gain (Prensky, 2012).

Also, highlights on my Kindle device (but not on the PC or iPhone versions) display page numbers, but I have yet to determine if these page numbers correspond to printed editions, or just my current Kindle view. If it these page numbers do correspond with printed editions, then I have solved my problem from last week.

Sources:

Carr, N. (2010). The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain Gain. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishers.