Okay, I think we can put the ranting behind. Finally the article on "Technology as Teacher" has said it for me: "Both groups [us] feel virtuous about their choices, and both manage to lose sight of the real issue: how to use technology, or relate to it, in ways that are productive and meaningful." (p. 34). With this is mind I hope we begin to discuss our ideas about said technologies.
This article starting giving me some framework about ways to use the internet, ie, research, e-mail, ect. It also mentioned some things I haven't heard of or have very little familarity with: listservs, bullentin boards, a program called Daedalus, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, web anthologies, Blackboard, Course Compass, to name a few. I am curious to find out what people think of these, their experiences and thoughts on how they can help the classroom.
The other article, about the CMC, even had a chart where it outlined different on-line tools and what they are good for. The best thing about this article was the suggestion that CMC's can help students brainstorm, and this idea generated some things in my mind that I could get excited about using in the classroom, or at least am interested in.
But I am still at a loss for how to set these systems up, and use them. Any suggestions? Can we begin to talk about what we know, don't know, pros, cons, ect.
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I thought the Blythe article was really pertinent to our class discussion as of late! haha... It addressed a lot of the issues we had been debating in class. I thought it was interesting when Blythe equated computer-mediated communication and oral commuication. I had never really thought about the way in which online communication and "talk" is linked. Traditional writing normally takes on a more formal tone, while writing online, in places like blogs, emails, and instant messages, tends to be more informal, more question and response driven. (Although there is certainly a fair amount of "serious" online writing.) Online writing is a whole new aspect of writing to be studied.
I was particularly intrigued when Blythe commented that the internet is not an egalitarian realm. Last year, I wrote a paper about the very subject. (It was on gender roles in instant messaging.) Gender roles do not disappear online as people once thougt they would. Those gender "tags" are deeply engrained in people from birth and cannot be "turned off" by the internet. It is important for people to understand this. If gender roles are to disappear, they must first disappear outside of online discourse. We are just too immersed in it for online communication to become truly egalitarian. (In my study, I collected transcripts of instant message convos, and it was shocking how much traditional gender roles were adhered to, though the IM'ers didn't realize this.)
I thought it was funny how Blythe said writing online allows all people, even shy people to voice their opinions. We have been saying this for weeks! (Great minds think alike, I guess.)
As I have said before, the internet and computer aided communication has a lot of potential in the classroom. (Though it is not perfect.)
"But I am still at a loss for how to set these systems up, and use them. Any suggestions? Can we begin to talk about what we know, don't know, pros, cons, ect."
The article suggested you should look up the tech people in our department (if they exist).
I found that the Blythe article was the most succint and practical article yet; most likely one that I would return to a few times for classroom ideas. The two basic erroneous assumptions he pointed out put into words what I had only a vague idea about (namely, that any inequalities that existed in conversations before the internet still exist after the internet). And he reminds us that, yes, even pens and notebooks are technology.
The remainder of his article rasies answers to how and why to use these resources, and I'll try everyone at least once to augment my classroom. For example, I have never experienced brain storming with anything other than a notebook and blackbaord (a literal blackboard). I'd be eager to see this process at work with computer interface.
But I think Blythe's main point was the idea that we've all been skirting around; the fact that technology serves the user. As a teacher, think about what you want your students to do, then figure out the appropriate use of available technologies.
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