Crockett 1 Jordan Crockett ENG 412 Dr.

Runyon 8 December 2012 Plugging in the Hurt: The Sore of Technology in Americas Classroom My home is relatively unplugged from constant media bombardment, but I do still have some technology plugged in. I do not have internet. I do not have a television. I do own and use a cell phone. I also own a laptop that I use daily for my academic course work. Its hard to escape from technologys influence. Its in our homes, workplaces, and schools. Technology advances and changes aggressively in our society today. The question is, does technology positively influence our world, or are there negative influences? Technology is having particularly negative effects on the ways we read, think, communicate and learn. Technology is everywhere. The internet is one technology medium that is truly changing the way people think, process and engage in critical thinking. In Is Google Making us Stupid? author Nicholas Carr believes the internets constant availability and personalization of ads and other pop-ups are causing our minds to change their methods of functioning. He was once an avid and deep reader. Reading is now a difficult task, now littered with distractions after two pages or less. He claims, I get fidgety, lose the threadthe deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle. We are under threat from technology. It is rewiring the way we process information, transforming us into broad gleaners rather than deep critical thinkers. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the sixties that media is not a passive organism but a powerful force that can shape our process of thought. The internet and related

Crockett 2 technologies alter the way we expect to gain information. Its a transfer. We are no longer critics of what we read, but mere decoders. This problem is finding its way into the hearts of learners and avid readers. In Carrs article, avid readers, like his colleagues, find themselves fighting to stay focused on long pieces of writing. One friend in particular, blogger Scott Karp, has stopped reading all together. He mourns this fact because he was a literature major and used to passionately read. He wonders what happened and prescribes the following answer: What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, such as for convenience, but because the way I think has changed? This is a terrifying notion. If technology and the internet brings a new type of reading and thinking, it must be creating a new self. Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University, agrees. We are not only what we read, we are how we read. She claims that when we have a falling out with traditional reading, our abilities to make meaningful rich mental connections are largely disengaged and we are only power-browsing for the most exciting material. Technology manipulates. Technology is everywhere. Reading is a crafted skill. According to Wolf, reading is not something we are born with. It is something we must learn. Deep reading provides a quiet place for our own ideas, inferences, associations, analogies, and connections to be critically fostered. Wolf argues that deep reading is indistinguishable from deep thinking. If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with content, we will sacrifice something important not only in ourselves but in our culture. The playwright Richard Foreman describes what is at stake during this change of priorities: I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and cathedral-like structure of the highly educated and articulate personality a man or woman who carried inside themselves a

Crockett 3 personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self evoking under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the instantly available. This instantly available is the technology that surrounds us nearly every minute of our daily lives. Its there, in the form of a clock telling us when we should sleep, eat, work, play, and wake. The computer and all of its components powerfully demonstrate this influence. Even though technology is found in nearly all vocations and careers, the battlefield of the classroom has the most pertinence to me as a future educator. Technology is everywhere in education. It is now part of the standards that teachers must abide by to be deemed effective. For example, in the seventh subgroup of standards found in Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers (PSMT), education professionals have to meet particular ways to integrate technology into successful teaching. I do believe that teachers need to integrate technology into the classrooms on some level to stay current, and appealing. But, those shouldnt be the main criteria for having technology in the classroom. According to Sarah Kajder, author of Plugging In: What technology brings to the English/Language Arts Classroom, there have been fifteen or so years of pondering the use of technology in school. Technology is only a tool that helps to unlock the potential, power, and promise of learning. As a tool, technology is doing great feats to help diverse learners. New technologies are universally helping disabled students learn just like their fellow mainstreamed students. For example, there are new computer systems attached to the chairs of quadriplegic students. These students use their heads to guide the computers text to speech functions, allowing them to communicate effectively with family, friends, and teachers. For students with more advanced needs,

Crockett 4 computers now exist that can use the tiniest eye movements of students, giving them ability to effectively communicate beyond simple sentence. Technology is opening doors for constructive learning in positive ways. Constructivism has students demonstrate their learning in more hands-on ways where they craft artifacts that demonstrate their abilities to reach the advanced levels of Blooms Taxonomy. According

toTeaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom, book review by S. Gresham Morgan, technology is a foundational tool for creating the 21st century classroom. These constructivist classrooms often include assignments where

students craft blogs and hybrid compositions, and learn through various technology tools such as podcasts and digital books. For example, a group of eighth graders studying narratives can post their final drafts to a blog where readers (parents, teachers, and fellow students) can comment on the website with constructive criticism after reading student work. Technology has been given a huge role with collaboration found in the 21st century classroom. This collaboration ties into globalized learning perspectives because the blogs and other media projects that students craft are intended for outside audiences. Skype and email are specific technological tools that contribute greatly to global learning perspectives. Now, in addition to research about different cultures, students can interview approved individuals from that culture without leaving home. Technology is everywhere. Technology has also recharged the way that teachers and students give and receive feedback for their academic work and progress. According to Morgan, feedback from a range of audiences including peers and teachers is crucial to effective communication. This statement can be adapted to any profession, not just those associated with education. If we have excellent communication skills and deal with constructive criticism well, it benefits our personal

Crockett 5 growth as professionals. For teachers, having these skills is essential. We need to communicate with stakeholders in constant professionalism. Feedback on our work and progress helps us change what doesnt work and repeat what does work. It helps students in a similar fashion. Timely feedback for students enables them to change what doesnt demonstrate their learning well to something that does. Effective communication with students and their parents keeps everyone accountable and on the same page, which is not only important for student success but also for the classroom learning community. Technology boosts already existing effective communication to the next level. Teachers are now able to set up websites that show parents and students everything going on in the classroom, as well as blog about classroom experiences and activities. Parents and teachers may exchange email correspondence, if necessary, to address concerns. Some teachers are even taking effective communication to the mobile level. Mobile technology, such as cell phone texting, is a great way for teachers to demonstrate timely feedback. As an example, after student presentations the teacher can immediately text grades and feedback to the student after the presentation is done without disrupting or taking up class time Effective teachers demonstrate their ability to integrate technology into their lessons as a tool to help the learning process, while poor teachers cant manage this. Technology in poorly integrated classrooms distracts learners. Teachers who predate these technologies often struggle in the modern classroom. Despite the benefits, technology is frequently detrimental to academic success, test scores and learning environments. Returning to Nicholas Carrs dilemma with the change technology has on our brains, reading, and thinking, just imagine the damage these technologies, such as the internet, mobile devices, and outrageous amounts of classroom technology have on the

Crockett 6 developing thinker, reader, and learner. If well grounded writers, such as Frederich Nietz, cannot resist the change of thought, reading, and process that comes with partaking in technology, what hope is there for the average seventh grader? In 1882, Nietz bought a type writer to save his writing because his eyesight was failing. Once he memorized the pattern of the letters, he could quickly pound out his next bit of writing. However, the machine made his already terse prose tighter and more telegraphic, and his friend said to him, Perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom. His friend later conveyed that Nietz had lost the essential connection of pen to paper. Imagine the following scenario. A seventh grade teacher, lets call her Mrs. F, has a classroom of full of students who are studying Shakespeares As You Like It in a very nontraditional way. They are part of a classroom rich in technology where their assignments range from blogging about the plays major themes, creating Facebook pages for leading characters (including all of their inner turmoil), and even creating song lists that touch on the emotions and situations found in the play, featuring Kayne West. This scenario is real and Mrs. Fs name is Mrs. Furman and she is a middle school teacher for the Kyrene School District in Chandler Arizona. The school district seems like a technology utopia for educations future. Classrooms are decked out with the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos available: MacBook Pros, iPads, Smartboards, and subject specific software that drills in the subject area content. This may sound great, but its misleading and tricky. Hope and enthusiasm at the school are high, but the test scores are dropping rapidly. According to Matt Richtels article Technology in schools Faces Questions on Value in the New York times, In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning. Schools, such as this Arizona school,

Crockett 7 are being inspired and motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills. This push for digital skills is hurting relationships between teachers and their students and learning. This push for digital skill acclamation in students isnt new. According to Richtel, the Clinton administration ran a report about the effectiveness of technology in schools, didnt find any conclusive data, and still encouraged schools to integrate technology into their classrooms. Richtel also reports that spending on technology continues to rise, even with the termination of teacher contracts. This causes hurt to the learning environment because as more and more teachers are fired, classroom populations grow. Mrs. Furman used to have twenty-five students in her class and now there are thirty-five. Studies show that classrooms that have fifteen or fewer students have the most academic success. Classrooms with fifteen to twenty-five students have consistent academic success, and most students succeed academically. However, classrooms that aim to educate more than twenty-eight students appear to have a greater half-life with each additional student added to the class. This hurts every students learning. So, at Kyrene schools, even though they are getting more access to computers, they are getting less access to teachers. Mrs. Furman says you cant continue to be effective if you keep adding one student, then one student, then one studentIm surprised that parents arent going into the classrooms saying Whoa! According to studies, essential skills such as reading, writing, and math are being sacrificed in honor of honing Microsoft office program proficiency in students. I have seen the awful effect that technology can have on a students ability to read, write, and solve math problems. The three basic Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) are foundational in school curricula. Reading and writing are essential skills for working with any subject matter, whether

Crockett 8 its the hard sciences, humanities, or mathematics. During one semester of observation I worked with a teacher who taught many grades of social studies. In the written tasks assigned to students, the writing level and style revealed negative consequences of mobile technology use. The abbreviated code language of texting that replaces words with letters and numbers is one symptom of this problem. For example, later would mutate into L8r. The words too, to, and two would all be replaced by the numeral digit 2. Similarly, these symptoms of the technology epidemic are rampant in English classes. Pretty soon, either the entire language is going to need to change to that, or any who assign writing tasks will need to re-teach more than one generation how to write. Technology goes beyond the student incorporation of text-speech into written assignments. It gets worse. Writing with text editing software, like Microsoft Word, does not aid the improvement of student thought processes. In a survey that I conducted, sixty-eight out of ninety students heavily rely on Microsoft Words spell-check feature to edit their papers. Spelling is another component of the English language that is wasted because of technology. I must admit, I am being slightly hypocritical because I am typing this essay on a computer and I do rely on the little red underlines that pop up under typos and how green lines show up under all of my weird fragmented sentences; I changed this sentence so it wouldnt have that squiggly line. Just imagine if grade school students did not need to worry about typing their paper drafts but would instead have nicely legible cursive (if it is still taught in the third grade). The final products of academic artifacts will likely be more meaningful because students have invested large amounts of time and effort into its careful creation. Computers are causing something to be lost that is found when students organically create their own thought processes through pen to paper interactions. Mrs. Furman always starts

Crockett 9 with pencils and paper. She doesnt use technology as much as other teachers in her building. For her there is something unique and personal about writing in the traditional way. Mrs. Furman assigns the following task to her students early in the school year: draw a heart and write all the things and the names of people you love in its center. She discovers the amazing reaction of her students. Its incredibly impactful to her students because at the end of the sharing time, everyone is crying and celebrating together. It was something that Mrs. Furman doubted would have happened if their students had been using computers. She said, There is a connection between the physical hand on the paper and the words on the pageits intimate. When students outline, draft, and compose all writing assignments via technology, they lose the deep meaningful nature of the thought process. Technology seems to take away the human interaction of learning, as well as the meaning of practical skills. For example, instead of learning to write clearly and articulately, students are encouraged to type a million words per minute, turning their hand writing and cursive (do people even use cursive anymore?) to an unreadable mess. Technology is everywhere. Technology has transformed and manipulated Americas classrooms into modern efficiency machines, where the break-neck pace of learning is potentially leaving more and more students behind. Students who can access computers right in their classroom, such as laptops with wireless internet access, demonstrate through their failing test scores that the most advanced technologies do not create the most successful learners or professional adults. Many of the issues technology was used to solve in the past, such as poor hand writing, are become results of the same technology. Students who are encouraged to take short cuts that technology provides are losing out on learning, as well as having the humanness of learning cut out. Technology presents a gateway to current and future educators. As one of

Crockett 10 those future educators, it is my responsibility to ensure that authentic learning takes place in my classroom. I know that real learning takes place without excessive technology. Real learning involves deep thinking, deep reading, and the essential connection between our humanness and our learning. If technology takes away the root of learning, its time to root it of education.

Crockett 11 Works Cited Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008: n. pag. The Atlantic Online. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 Fallows, James. "Living With a Computer." The Atlantic Unbound. The Atlantic, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 Gresham, S. Morgan. "Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom." Rev. of Teaching the New Writing. Compositional Studies Spring 2010: 144-148. Print. Kajder, Sarah. Plugging In: What Technology Brings to the English/Language Arts Classroom. Voices From the Middle 11.3 March 2004: 6-9 "MDE - Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers (PSMT) and Alignment." Michigan Department of Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. Richtel, Matt. Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value. New York Times Online 3 Web. 12 Dec. 2011: 1-9