CURR 501 Blog 3: The Relationship Between Turkle and Wesch.

     After watching the Ted Talk, Connected but Not Alone done by Sherry Turkle and read, Anti-Teaching by Michael Wesch, I see their discussions going hand-in-hand with one another as they discuss new media and technology. 

    In Connected but Not Alone, Turkle discusses the disconnect in human interaction that has came into existence as technology has become more advance. How throughout lectures, meetings, classroom presentations, family dinners/ and friendship gatherings, the constant theme occurs. More texting and less communicating between human beings! 

In Anti Teaching, Michael Wesch discusses how learning has changed (to almost non existence) as technology has advanced. There's no genuine interest to learn anymore as the old ways of learning (reading books) are no longer effective. Students are finding that they are wasting time and money on books that they never read because they've learned to Google any and everything and on classes that they're just not getting anything out of. School has become a game of how to play your cards right. The "cheat sheets" of passing a class which is, just skimming through pages to find the information you need or just making sure that you memorize as much as you can for the big test and after that, you can forget it all! 

In both Turkle and Wesch's discussions there is one general commonality that I found throughout: That technology has become a "scapegoat" in fulfilling things that humans are longing for but no longer have the zeal to work towards anymore. Whether that's passing a class that seems pointless but you need to pass in order to get the credits you desire or even as simple as basic human interaction, technology has made it all so simple to obtain these things with little to no work and/or effort. It's become so easy that when put into a situation with no technology available,  where someone has to actually use a physical book to jot down notes because there's no pdf or sparknote available or having to start up a conversation in class with a classmate because the teacher took your phone, many people panic and are in fear in these situations!

What I can conclude from this is that we can't blame people for wanting to use technology and we can't blame technology for it's convenience. Technology is something that is always going to evolve and advance and it's something that we just have to adapt to whether we like it or not because it's not going anywhere. The main problem throughout this all is figuring out how to make learning fun and exciting to do again where we don't need a "scapegoat" to simply give us answers. We have to figure out how to make learning something experimental where people are able to make trials and errors and to get out of their comfort zones and learn about themselves without feeling ashamed or the need to hide behind a screen. Technology is still important in learning but how can we use technology to enhance our interests in learning rather than just making things easier to "learn"? 



Comments

  1. Roberto VargasJuly 1, 2021 at 1:24 PM

    Tammy, I like your point of about figuring how to make learning something experimental. The word that stands out to me is the word "experimental" because with it comes curiosity and creativity. As we have discussed and read in class, these two components are two that can help youth to best learn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 1, 2021 at 1:39 PM

    Tammy, I couldn't agree more with your point about technology that "we just have to adapt to whether we like it or not because it's not going anywhere." I think that's so true, and I think you're right that technology should be "enhancing" students' passions, rather than making it "easier to learn." Yes! I'm thinking a lot about the "techno-constructivist" practices and ideas and how we can shift our mindsets as both teachers and students to that model. Also: PASA is awesome, thank you for being a leader in that organization!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 9- Bullet Points

After reading "All: At Our Best Introduction" ( Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, and Jessica Tseming Fei ) and "Why Couldn't That Have Been Me? Reflections on Confronting Adultism in Education Organizing Spaces" (Luk, Schuettge, Catone, + Perez ), the five bullet points that struck out to me was: 1."Authentic youth leadership- young people having power and agency to make decisions affecting their lives and their communities."  (Luk, Schuettge, Catone, + Perez).  I strongly agree with the idea that young people should have an opinion on decisions that affect their lives and their community. After all they are the ones who have to reap either the benefits or consequences of the decision that gets made!  2."Just because adults step back does not mean that they do not have the responsibility to support young people's leadership. Authentic youth leadership is represented not by a space where youth are left to fight for their own liber...
Read more

Blog 6- BLM even at work?

When I had first started my position at my organization, my coworkers were thrilled to see a woman of color hired! One of my coworkers, who had already been with the organization for over 5 years, had told me that up until a year before I was hired, there was absolutely no diversity within the organization. That in every staff meeting, he would look around the room and be the only minority face at the table (he's Asian ). One day he spoke up at one of the staff meetings and asked the question of how can this organization fully support the youth they serve, the prominent majority being black and brown youth, when only one out of the twenty staff here is of color and actually lives in the city that we serve? After that, the directors really started on ponder on what my co worker had been saying. They hired two Latina staff shortly after and a year later, hired two African American women (myself included). But that was only half the battle. One challenge that I initially faced withi...
Read more

Blog 2- Stereotypes and Youth

One stereotype about young people was discussed in the video, Child Development Core Story Part 2: Save and Return. The video discusses the common judgement that families in low income neighborhoods aren't able to have the proper resources to care and support their children. Without this care and support, children lack brain architecture that gives them an advantage not only in academics but better social skills, emotional regulation and a higher ability to learn than a child lacking positive adult attention. That without this healthy brain architecture , students are more prone to falling behind in school and never catching up. This brings me back to my own childhood as when I was three years old my mother enrolled me into the Head Start program. Head Start was pretty much a free preschool that not only taught me social, emotional and academic skills, but they also helped me with my behavior (I was a bit of a handful). Head Start was honestly the best thing that happened for me...
Read more