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.
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.
Saskia, I think your connection between the Wesch article and our class today is spot on. Like Wesch, professor Bogad took on the role of facilitator by providing us with a supportive learning environment to engage with one another with a variety of tools. Certainly, she provided us with general expectations of what our final products should include, but never once did she suggest that there was a "right" way to complete our task. This freedom, I think, is what allowed our class to produce some many different options. I think it also demonstrates what Turkle and Wesch argue for in their sources: that connection between people is the key to learning and meaningful experiences.
ReplyDeleteSaskia, I love how you connected the reading to our class today. And I think that it leads to a really important message. We do not need to know how to do everything. As educators, we often feel like we need to know how to do everything and how to solve every problem. However, we can be learning right alongside our students. I am already thinking of ways I can have my students teach me new platforms and work with them to create something exciting. This will also help with making connections and facilitating relationships with our students. Wesch is a strong believer in making connections to our students. By engaging in a fun activity and learning from them, we are able to foster and build those relationships. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSaskia, I like how you related the article back to what we did in class today. We used technology in a healthy and collaborative way. I have started to take notice in my own technology use. My phone sends out a weekly update on how much time I have spent on my phone and I normally just ignore it. Next time I get the update I am going to check to see how much time I have spent on it! I like how you pointed out the future for technology and questioning what that looks like. I think about how fast technology has evolved and how many resources I have not yet discovered.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you brought it all together with "how important and fun it can be to make learning happen in a healthy inviting environment with motivated teachers (motivated students will follow)". It's true. Learning is about connections and if you are energetic and motivated, the hope is that your students will be too. Nicely stated.
ReplyDelete