Grappling 2.0

                                                             I

Reading the selections for this week was definitely an interesting experience.  I say this because I have never read any scholarly article about technology, let alone the use of such in a classroom.  So, for me, these readings were enlightening in the sense that it stretched my thinking beyond the standard terminology that I am accustomed to reading about in readings for my English education classes.  Allison, Lankshear and Knoble, and Richardson all presented perspectives of technology that I had never thought about.  The Allison selection made me question if I would be able to successfully implement the use of a blog into my classroom.  I feel what struck me the most about the piece was how there was no discussion of a student not doing the work, and, although I am sure the students were excited at the opportunity to use the internet as the foundation of the class, I couldn’t help but think what about the student(s) that resist? 

Allison posited, “No longer am I assessing them; shift the students assess themselves, and decide what to do next,” and at first I thought how wonderful it would be if all of the students contributed whole-heartedly, but I kept coming back to what about that student that just doesn’t do it (Allison, p. 79).   Perhaps I am being cynical or maybe event pessimistic, but I struggle with this idea of the students assessing themselves because I have never been in a setting where my students or I do such.   In every classroom that I have been in I have always had 1 student that I am unable to access regardless of how hard I try or how many options I come up with, and I fear that this student will be further marginalized if given the opportunity to have their learning be entirely self driven.  Who knows, they may surprise me, but I feel that it is necessary to give the students multiple opportunities to succeed in multiple forms, and I felt like a blogging classroom alone wouldn’t provide such.  

However, what I did find incredibly valuable and promising about the use of blogging in the classroom was the development of multiple skills simultaneously.  On page 82, Allison noted, “in a one week period, students are asked to work on these modes of expression with four different habits of work: participating (collecting), producing (drafting), perfecting (revising and editing), and publishing,” all of these are vital skills that when taught in this platform would, undoubtedly be much more engaging. I found this idea of teaching habits of work to connect nicely with Lankshear and Knoble’s discussion of literacy.  Not only does the use of technology allow the students to gain the skills in a medium where they are, presumably, more comfortable, but it also makes them more digitally literate – and therefore, more culturally literate as well.  This idea of a “three-dimensional” model of literacy – the operational, the cultural, and the critical – is one that enforces the need to not only access the information in order to be literate but also possess the tools necessary to implement the skill and evaluate its impact.  In essence, at least in my understanding, to be digitally literate is to be conscious that there are more sides to the story than what is found in an article or a picture, and it is left to the viewer to piece together the impact, meaning, and significance of the piece in the greater society. 

            II

 I think this is what challenges my security and confidence in technology.  When we post something to the Internet, it is accessible to just about anyone, for better or for worse, and the threat of something I post being used against me is a very scary prospect.  Now, I am not saying I am posting awful things, but throughout high school and college we were warned to be careful what we post online because it will follow us forever, and could keep us from being hired.  What’s to say an employer won’t find this blog, read it, disagree with what I said and then not hire me because of it.  This is what I fear for my students.  Technology is a playground of sorts, we must become familiar with the pieces that are there to play with before we take risks, but sometimes when we take that risk, we get hurt and are affected by it for an extended period of time.  The last thing I want is for a student of mine to grapple with ideas in my classroom through the use of technology and then be penalized for it in some way shape or form later in life.  But at the same time, becoming digitally literate is no longer recommended, it is required and isn’t that what we want for our students? To be as prepared as possible for what they will encounter in the future?   Now I feel like I’m rambling, but in conclusion I just need to take a deep breath and take that leap to discovering the balance between being digitally literate and happily disconnected simultaneously.