Week 8A: Technology

Love the subject. I remember back when we started the blog assignment. There was a feeling of overwhelming fear and anxiety. Then I truly enjoyed how to make the site "ME". After the readings for the class I have some thoughts on the "blog". Some of these impressions found focused expression in "Distant Voices, Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology" by Chris Ansom when he goes beyond the technology into maintaining a dialogue.
First, the set up for the blogs can be individualized visually. There is room for variations and revisions week to week, by font, and the added dimensions of videos, pictures, or connections to other sites enabling imagination to flourish(which I have not mastered). There is the ability to read and post other classmates postings. I found this feature difficult to evaluate because there were few comments posted by other class members. There was no way of knowing if anyone accessed your postings without commenting I guess that could be addressed in the future as "number of accesses and if it was helpful or not" (like a hotel review). Are we writing a private journal or building a dialogue? I assume the feedback from the professor, Ms. Julie, will come after the last posting has posted. I also found it fascinating how the criteria for the project can be circumvented by the ingenious (thank you Ray) and a sign for use in the secondary classroom that might have to be more fully explored as computers find their way into more classrooms. Will this ability to circumvent become an issue for school boards and school policies?

The issues that remains for me and the use of computers with composition continue as access and knowledge of the vocabulary(how to find all the nuances of written, visual, connections, etc.) Added to those two BIGGIES will be the question of how is truth from the information posted on the Internet be determined (see Faigley's article in Bloom where on-the- surface values of our times blends with research into society as in Lewis's "Faking It") and what is the purpose of the communication factor with this method of composition(Lewis was able to utilize "3 genres in 4 media's"as layers of the composition build on each other). How will the lines of everyday communication on the Internet be diffenentiated from art and special interests?

Where will the money come from to keep the computers and software relevant to the students entering a world more technologically grounded? How will the safety of the net be ensured and regulated? How will the personal be protected within the public and political Internet connections?

I would like to comment the teacher of Christine Neuwirth in "Multimedia Literacy: confessions of a non-major" who "point[ed] out 'things to think about' that my novice eyes had missed and would lead to marked improvements" (Bloom 189) This showed that there was a need to know the vocabulary that connects the process with the thought that allows communication. I agree with Faigley that teaching traditiional composition theory does have a place as modern technology grows in the fields of communication. There is still room for the presentation of self in a physical manner that requires a knowledge of composition so we can use our spell and grammar checks as well as maintaing the flow of our thoughts through transitions. The creativity of the technology still requuires human contact. Charles Moran in "Technology and the Teaching of Writing" touches on all of these issues-access(wealth), vocabulary(English vs. ESL and learning disabilities), personal contact(peer review and teacher review), and trust of sources and information delivered. I believe the most important point Moran makes is that the teacher needs to know the media being used as technology as well as how the students use the technology (formal vs. informal). And as Anson warns in his article the face-to-face contact enabling immediante fed back and exploration of ideas is gone as computers are relied upon for the ultimate tutoring, research, and teaching tool. How will technology ensure that the quality of education as a whole and communication through composition as a use in all spheres and strata of our citizens? After all communication, visual and written, is about an individual being in a place they want to be. I believe the possibility and reality of hope should be available for all.