Research Blog for Rachael (Renzy) Shade

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazingdaze/1418434432/

 

I wonder if just the imagery of having a class in an informal, relaxing place (such as a beach) would help students feel more comfortable with each other and more willing to ask questions and make comments. The downfall of virtual environments like Second Life may always be that there are plenty of distractions to keep one from paying attention, but it's not like anyone has to be in class. If someone's not willing to focus and participate, the can just teleport their little avatar to another island. Perhaps as we get over the newness of technologies like Second Life, the desire to run around exploring things like crazy will die down.

• How does technology change/dictate our behaviors?

Technology changes how we experience the world. It makes it possible to communicate with others around the world instantly, can give us information about practically any subject and gives us new ways to learn, teach, entertain and be entertained. It changes how we interact socially with one another, especially. While current technology gives us the means to be connected to our friends, family and colleagues all hours of the day, the reverse effect is that it can lead to closing ourselves off from new encounters with people. Why go out and meet someone new or talk to our estranged neighbors when we can chat away on instant messenger to the same old people we have known all our lives or to a total stranger in Belgium? It is much easier and less face-threatening to chat or send text messages than it is to talk in person or even over the phone. Technology seems to have the capabilities of either aiding us keep in touch with our multiple contacts or to close us in a social box where we never need to leave the house.

• How should we help students cope with this impact technology has on us?

The impact of technology, constant connection and instant entertainment, is hard enough to cope with when one is not a student. In a classroom, whether there are computers in use or simply cell phones, technology can pull students' attention away from the lesson being presented very easily.  It seems to me that students, and everyone in general, are developing a greater and greater need for instant gratification when it comes to social aspects and leisure activities in their/our lives. There is also the problem of access to technology and how economic constraints can hinder a student's performance in getting assignments done on time and/or the quality of assignments. There is also the issue of how well a student knows how to use the technology needed for a class.

Helping students (everyone) cope with these issues is something that I feel is desperately needed but overwhelming to think about. Learning to use things in moderation is always the hardest. We could use things like chat and texting as part of a class project, but there would have to be a way to monitor what is going on. And then, there is the issue of privacy when it comes to cell phones and social networking sites like Facebook. As for things like working on a class project online while browsing another website irrelevant to the topic, I am starting to think that this might be a part of using the Internet that teachers will have to come to accept as long as it is not something that is getting in the way of the students completely a task. Is it really a terrible problem if someone sends a text message during class as long as it doesn't make any weird noises that disrupt class and as long as the student does not spend the class period sending text messages? Is it a problem if one student whispers something quickly to another during class? Why do we differentiate? Is it that we're all techno-phobic or see technology as primarily a means of entertainment?

Access to technology and economic inequalities are things that may have to be addressed by taking the time out to explain to everyone how to use the technology, making sure that everyone is on the same page. Because of access and economic issues, any technology that is necessary for a class should be available to students 24/7 in as many locations as possible with no difference in what kinds of programs or software the machines (do not) have (a problem I have noticed at IUP!).  If students do not have access to technology at home, then we need to accommodate them as much as we can.

• Is there any way for us to "turn off" technology? Is that hope, put forth by Brende completely unrealistic or achievable in some way?

At this point, I would say no. We need technology to browse the library's catalog, to browse articles and to make interlibrary loan requests. We need technology to write up our papers. We're expected to email one another to discuss group projects and set up meetings outside of class. We get most of our memos through email and expect that. Everything from how we communicate with our families to how international businesses function would go into an extreme upheaval if we turned off technology. It has invaded our lives in so many aspects, for better or for worse, that I would way that Brende's vision has become very unrealistic.

• Discuss how you might study these technology problems as a researcher?

I have quite a few "technology experiences" that deal with work and school, but one of the more meaningful of them happened and is still happening in my personal life: the discovery of a certain infamous image board whose name will remain anonymous. If you did not just get the reference I made and you still want to know, come ask me.

This image board works like any other forum with an emphasis on pictures, wildness and pushing absolutely everyone's buttons. The group of people who hang out at this board are lewd, crude, sophomoric and sometimes downright sick. However, this one place on the Internet is the source of nearly all online practical jokes, "lol cats," demotivational posters, rick-rolling, large scale hacking schemes and what I will refer to as "Internet culture." Even if you've never been to this board, you have probably participated in spreading its influence one way or another.

This is especially true when it comes to being a literate person in the virtual wild west. This board is also the source of tons of memes online. Memes, according to a quick Wikipedia search, are "catchphrases or images that spread quickly, peer to peer." To understand the plethora of memes that are generated on the board is to understand a whole other level of culture on the Internet. Writing a meme out somewhere online, such as in the comment section of a YouTube video, can set someone a part from the Internet community as a whole. Another person in this in-group can respond with an appropriate meme and therefore establish a connection that other people commenting on the video cannot. For example, let's see if you know what is going on in this hypothetical conversation:

User 1: It's Caturday! Post some cats.
User 2: Ugh, that looks like Chin-chan
User 3: Epic fail. Why don't you become an hero?
User 4: 2 and 3 win an internet.
User 5: lol, op needs to lurk moar (intentional misspelling).

Do you know what these five people are talking about? A person literate in the culture and therefore the memes that the board has created would.

Even though things on this board are not very "work safe," I think that it is an example of literacy creation and in-group status creation that is extremely unique because we can sit and watch it happen. We can actually trace the origins of a phrase like "win an internet" and why it started to be used in the way that it is. I found this very intriguing before I was a C&T student and now it's something that I would like to really study.

As for using this technology, I have done little but post a few pictures here and there. Active participation on the board is something I shy away from because of the threat that hackers can bring. 

 

• Discuss yourself as an IUP C&T student.

• What has your experience as a student been like so far?
• What challenges have you faced?
• What aspects of the experience have been most interesting, positive?

 

I hardly feel like a real "C&T" student right now, since it hasn't even been a month yet since I began the program. However, the switch from studying primarily the fine arts to the social sciences has been a bit of a challenge. Issues like qualitative vs. quantitative are ones that never came up in any of my seminar courses about literature, for one thing.

Even though a lot of it is shiny and new, I still feel like I made the right choice in my change to studying rhetoric and education. I also feel that the program here is much more dedicated to the training of new colleagues in their research and teaching methods than the one in my former institution. I may not be familiar with most of the big names and theoretical concepts in this field yet, but I feel as though that won't be a problem soon!

Another thing that feels strange to me is to not be teaching. I taught for nearly a year in Spain and then taught for two years in Maryland. It's as though there's a phantom pile of ungraded papers right at the corner of my eye that I expect to be at my desk!