Thursday, June 30 2022

  Relation Connection

After watching Turkle's Ted Talk, Connected but alone?, and reading Wesch's Anti -Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of significance, I do think there is a connection between the two. They relate to each other in a different way but in the end  I believe it's about the concern of the "learning" process socially and  academically. For Turkle the concern lays in the social destruction of human kind by the way technology devices are used and for Welsch the concern and frustration lays in the one way teaching, no interaction and because of that teachers and students lacking motivation and learning is not happening.

They discuss their issues on two different platforms. Turkle, concerned about the use of technology ruining social relationships with others and self, even when opportunities arise to use robots for companionship.  And Wesch's Anti -Teaching ideas relate because of the no connection with students in the lecture hall because of the one way teaching system. Professors hold their lectures, might use technology to share a slide show and because of 500 students in the room there's not much interaction going on. That way of teaching or learning is not motivating and in such environment it's not happening.

The message Turkle sends is that these devices don't give us the social connection with each other, these devices can do harm on the social emotional level, these devises can be a distraction on so many fronts and don't help growth on the social/ emotional front. She finishes her Ted Talk with an open question, "How can we use the technology of our dreams to make this life, the life we can love." Something we seriously need to think about and already do.

In the end Wesch comes up with a solution to use technology as a tool for his student's to learn in a healthy environment. It is about social interaction/collaboration using technology (the World Simulation) to learn and to use problem solving. Wesch mentions that he doesn't know all the answers either and that they all learn alongside of each other. This reminds me of our class today. In the poem activity we did today where you, professor Bogad mentioned that you have not used some of the technology tools we could explore today, but you did offer them and by collaboration within the group it was figured out and it was a fun learning experience at the same time.

These articles make you aware how important and fun it can be to make learning happen in a healthy inviting environment with motivated teachers (motivated students will follow). I am happy to learn about the different technical tools/devices that I can use in my classes in a safe way to make safe learning happen. It also shows you that not all technical devices/tools are used beneficial to enhance learning. We have to be aware how we set the example of using them.

 Monday, June 27 2022

Two interesting articles but yet already outdated ones about digital technology. Prensky's slide deck dates from 2001 and Boyd's article dates from 2014. Comparing the two articles I would  take a stand behind Boyd's vision because her ideas seem newer and reflect on both technology skills and media literacy.  She considers the youth digital natives but that doesn't mean that they are considered technology literate.  Digital natives get  around easily on technical devises but don't necessarily inquire or adapt the correct information from different sources. Digital immigrants need to learn the use of technology later in life but it doesn't mean that they lack technology skills. Prensky's ideas are based on scientific research. He considers digital immigrants old school and  the youth he considers new school. One of the slides in Prensky's slide deck intrigued me. A student is projected with the text "Power Down". In the time the article was written I believe that the youth could be more advanced with technology as their teachers, which shouldn't be the case in my opinion. Because of the pandemic in 2020 I think teachers made a 360 degree turn around with the use of technology in the class room which brings teachers and student more together. My concern with the technology moving so rapidly and the youth wanting to keep up through social media is the harm that can be done through peer pressure. Can the rapid growth of technology get out of control? I want to end this  part of the post with a quote of Boyd's  last sentences of her article.  "It behooves all of us to move past assumptions about
today’s youth. Both adults and youth need to develop media literacy
and technological skills to be active participants in our information
society. Learning is a lifelong process".

 My stand on the "digital native" term. I accept the term. The term can be looked at from two sides. A can of worms can be opened and the terminology can be discussed until the end of times but I don't feel the need to put energy into that at the moment.

 Hi! This is Saskia. Writing my first post on this blogger site. Very excited to try this very new material to me out. My summer is going great so far. Highlights are my parents visiting us from Aruba for five weeks and my youngest son being home for two weeks. Also enjoying sitting and relaxing on the patio with a good book, a cocktail, good conversations and taking in the flora and fauna around us and a fire occasionally.