Mini Presentation

Adolescent Interview

For my adolescent interview I interviewed my sixteen year old nephew Collin. Below are my questions and his answers to those questions:

Adolescent Interview:

(My nephew Collin who is 16 years old)

1. Me: Are there any social media sites or other websites that you visit on a daily basis?

        Collin: Yes I use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube daily.

2. Me: About how many hours a day do you spend on the internet?

Collin: Probably around 4 to 5 hours.

3. Me: When you are on the internet, what type of information are you looking for or reading about?

Collin: If I’m at school on my Chromebook usually I just look for information for classwork. But usually I am just looking for funny things like family drama.

4. Me: What kinds of technological devices (cell phone, iPod's, iPad's, Xbox, etc.) would you say you use on a daily, or almost daily, basis?

Collin: I use my phone, Chromebook, and PS3 daily.

         

5. Me: Throughout your school day, what types of technological devices do you and your teachers use during class? (Such as laptops, Kindles, iPad's, computers, SmartBoards, etc.)

Collin: At school we usually use our Chromebooks that the school gave us, but many of our teachers use SmartBoards or computers hooked up to TVs.

6. Me: During class, are you allowed to have cellphones, iPad's, iPod's, etc.? If not, what kind of punishment would occur if you were caught with one?

Collin: In my school It’s up to the teacher if we are allowed to keep them on us, but i they don’t we have to put them in cubbys by the door.

7. Me: Are you ever required to use the internet for homework assignments? If so, what does your teacher do for the students who do not have internet at home?

Collin: We have to use the internet in a lot of classes, and if someone doesn’t have access to internet at home they will either get a written assignment or more time to do it at school.

8. Me: Do you ever use the internet to communicate with friends? If so, then how do you communicate with them online?

Collin: I usually use Snapchat to talk to my friends.

9. Me: Do you ever worry about the internet being a risk to your privacy? Why or why not?

Collin: Not really because I try to never post or share personal information.

10. Me: If you were to lose your cell phone, what type of reaction would you have? How would you feel without it?

Collin: I would probably be pretty angry at first but I’d get over it, and I would feel bored.

        After reading through this interview several times I found some answers that surprised me. I suspected that when I asked my nephew how many hours a day he spent on the internet that he would say at least two. However, his answer surprised me. He spends at least four to five hours a day on the internet. This amount was much higher than I expected. I know that teenagers spend a lot of time on the internet but I did not realize how significant of an amount of time they truly spend. One response I was pleasantly surprised by was the use of technology and the internet throughout his school day. I was very pleased to hear that he has access to Chromebooks throughout his school day. This is not something my students have access to so I found it interesting and feel it must be very beneficial to the students. I am not sure what to think about some teachers allowing their students to keep their cell phones and other devices on them throughout class. I am curious as to how this affects the students focus and learning. I know that through personal experience it has always distracted me from the lesson and my surroundings if I have it during class. It would be interesting to speak with the teachers that allow students to have their phones and hear their reasoning's and experiences with the devices. I thought that my nephew would spend an equal or lesser amount of time on the  internet as me. I feel that I spend a significant amount of time each day on the internet. The fact that he spends a great deal more time on the internet per day than me really made me realize what a substantial part in plays in their every day lives. It showed me that the internet is an essential part of his every day whether it be in school or at home, or in his academic and social life. 

       One answer that did not surprise me was when he stated he would be very bored  and angry if he was to forget his phone at home. I could relate to these feelings. Whenever I have forgotten my phone I was very anxious and would reach for it when I was bored. When I realized I didn't have it to distract me I became more anxious and annoyed. I learned that these feelings do not just occur for people in their 20's but it also happens to young adults. This showed me how much our society depends on the internet and technological devices to keep us connected and entertained at all times. Another thing I learned was how much technology is incorporated into every day school activities. It seems that it is crucial for the learning and development of students throughout today's society. Instead of using books to help them with their assignments students are now solely depending on the internet to assist them. 

    I really enjoyed this interview because it showed me how much technology and the internet in school has changed the every day routine. Although we had limited access when I was in high school, the students in today's society are dependent on the internet for their academic success. It was very interesting to learn about the different types of technology the teachers implement into their lessons. Another thing I found interesting was that many of the social media sites my nephew visits on a daily basis were the same ones I tend to visit on a daily basis. Although we are about fifteen years apart we do still have similarities with our use of technology and the internet. It seems that as the years go on our society becomes more and more dependent on these technologies and the internet.

Advertisement Deconstruction

It is common knowledge that many advertisements are very controversial for the ways they portray certain groups of people or for the products they are advertising to their targeted audience. For example, cigarette companies are often ridiculed for targeting teens and young adults with their advertisements. However, it was not until I deconstructed a popular beer commercial that I realized how many stereotypes existed in this commercial. Prior to deconstructing this commercial I never really thought twice about the advertisement or the stereotypes it was showing. For this advertisement in particular it showed many stereotypes of women. In the commercial it seemed that the sole purpose of the women was to be around the man. Whenever they were around him they were laughing and enjoying themselves. All of the women were thin, beautiful and dressed very elegantly. It gave the notion that the sole purpose of these women was to please the man and cater to him. It was as if the women wanted nothing more then to spend as much time with him as possible. The man was portrayed as a strong, masculine, charismatic and mysterious person. It was very obvious that this was the reason that the women were so attracted to him.

It was very frustrating to see that this sexism is still so apparent in every day advertisements. These are commercials on national television that are seen by millions of men, women, teenagers, and children. These types of messages continue to embed messages of sexism into our society. It also shows our children and young adults that men are only attracted to young, skinny, beautiful and elegantly dressed women and that their sole purpose is to gain the attention of a desirable man. These are dangerous messages that we are portraying to our young generation of girls. Although these advertisements appear in new forms of media it seems that they continue to show stereotypes in harmful and damaging ways.

An Acoustic World

Throughout Marshal McLuhan's video of "Living in an Acoustic World", there were many times that I felt a bit lost and confused. What I gathered from the video was that McLuhan did not agree with the way our society is developing and continuously changing. At the end of his video he states that, "Americans came to this continent to subdue nature, fast and furious. They tamed it, they subdued it, they crushed it. They turned it into the enemy." I was a bit confused by this statement. Did McLuhan mean that technological developments, such as cellphones, internet and computers, were created as a way for us to subdue nature? If that is the case, then does McLuhan oppose these new advances in our society? I think I struggled with understanding his point of view because this video was dated back forty or more years ago. His point of view may be more clear to me if I was to hear it in terms of today's society.

Another part of McLuhan's speech that made me think he is not in favor of these technological advancements was when he discussed the "end of secrecy." From his speech I understood this to be him thinking this was a negative. I agree with him that the creation of these new technologies does end secrecy. However, in many cases I do not think this is a negative. In the case of government and politics I do not think there should be secrets from the citizens of the country. With secrets being harder to keep we are not left in the dark about as many issues and situations as we were prior to these advancements. In today's society, when people join social media they are giving up a piece of their lives to the public. In my opinion, they opted to end their secrecy to a certain extent. Many people put their entire lives on social media through posts, videos or pictures. However, this was their own decision. It was their personal choice to give that information to the public and to have it no longer be private. People who would like to keep their lives more private tend to not post on social media or do not participate in social media altogether.

I would be very interested to hear McLuhan's point of view of society in today's technologically advanced world. What does he think of new media? Does he think this has a positive or negative impact on our society? It was difficult to relate to what he was saying during his videos because it was during a time that I was not yet born. I do not know the changes that were occurring in our society at that time and how many people felt about those changes. I would also enjoy hearing his thoughts on bringing technology into the classroom. Did anyone get a different message or idea from McLuhan's video? I would love to hear different perspectives. Again, I was confused through parts of it and could have missed some key information!


McLuhan, Marshal. Living in an Acoustic World.
http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/lecture/1970-living-in-an-acoustic-world/

Changing Citizenship

I found Bennett's discussion on the changing citizenship in our younger generations due to the digital age to be very interesting and relate-able. It wasn't until last year that I began actively watching the news and reading in order to keep up with what is going on in politics, the government, and society. I am still not as active as I feel I should be. This is especially true when it comes to politics. I have always highly enjoyed learning about history and the government. So, why was it so difficult to keep myself interested on things that are happening now? It had never occurred to me that it may be because of the way these issues are presented. "Governments that continue to exclude future citizens through their communication strategies only perpetuate the divided sense of citizen identity that leads young people to find political outlets outside government. Given the low costs and potentially broad reach of digital media, there is much that could be done to improve the daily communication outreach of politicians." (Bennett, 2008, pp. 15) I have never feel a strong connection to my government or political aspects. I do have very strong opinions about issues such as civil rights, the environment, education, etc. It now is clear to me that the reason I never felt those strong ties with the government is because I do not feel like I am a part of it. "Young citizens are among those most blatantly excluded from the public discourses of government, policy arenas and elections. The result is that the world of politics and government seems distant, irrelevant, and inauthentic to many citizens, particularly younger demographics." (Bennett, 2008, pp.13) 

A majority of the young people that I know feel the same way. They do not feel a connection with politicians or government officials. They know that even the news channels cannot be trusted to give an unbiased version of what is going on throughout our country and the world. It is a very uneasy feeling when you do not know who you can trust and who you can't. These media outlets are constantly trying to shape your views and opinions about issues. Our opinions are trying to be formed for us instead of using the facts to create our own opinions. In terms of Green's model, I feel that these issues are critical because through technology these younger generations are asking critical questions and creating different perspectives. 

"Perhaps one of the most obvious factors contributing to the relatively passive, disengaged stance of many young people toward government and formal elements of politics is the withering away of civic education in schools." (Bennett, 2008, pp. 7) Today, in schools, students do not begin to learn about social studies or science until the get into fourth grade. Their teachers may touch on it during an ELA lesson but they never solely focus on these subjects. We have over a two hour block for ELA, an hour an a half for Math and twenty minutes for Social Studies and Science on a daily basis. Even when the students do start to learn about history and their government it is only for about twenty minutes. How can we expect our younger generations to feel connected to our government when we hardly teach them about it? This is an issue that has always deeply bothered me because I feel that the knowledge provided in science and social studies is crucial to these students. Our schools are so consumed with ELA and Math that we have pushed the other subjects aside. The effects are now starting to be seen as many young people either do not care about what is happening in their government or they do not know enough about it to be active participants. 

Bennett, W. Lance. “Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age." Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. Edited by W. Lance Bennett. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 

Networked Publics

 I have had my cell phone attached to my hip for the past fifteen years. Throughout those fifteen years I have occasionally thought about how this device effects me socially. Every once in a while when I was at dinner with a group of friends I would notice someone sitting on their cell phone while everyone else was talking. I would become annoyed and think that this type of behavior was incredibly rude (which it is). However, I would then catch myself doing the same thing while I was at the dinner table with my parents. I was no different then the people I had once considered rude. It was clear to me that cell phones were effecting peoples lives by the way they were interacting and communicating with people that are in their presence. As I have become older I have tried to recognize this type of behavior and stop myself. I will, however, still periodically catch myself paying attention more to my cell phone than to my loved ones around me. I am glad that I started to recognize this issue because I do feel that it is a problem. I do not want to be so engulfed in social media, games, or surfing the internet that I miss precious time with those that I love. This reading helped open my eyes to just how much cell phones are effecting all of us as a society. Varnelis and Friedburg described this perfectly when they stated, "With connection there is also disconnection, and networks can consolidate power in the very act of dispersing it." (Varnelis, Friedburgh, Pp.16)

The tools that are being put into practice are technological advances, such as cell phones, that are changing social interactions in our society. I feel that this issue would be in the critical dimension of Green's approach to literacy because when considering the issues pertaining to cell phones we are thinking of how it effects people socially and on a deep level. In Chapter 1, Varnelis and Friedburgh begin showing us the effects that cell phones have on social interactions by talking about how public places look now compared to before the cell phone. "Public space became increasingly privatized and virtualized, with networks of individuals being replaced by television broadcast networks, and individuals becoming less and less citizens and more and more consumers." (Varnelis, Freidburg. Pp. 18) This quote made me think back to times that I have been in public alone. Did I begin a conversation with a stranger? Did I notice my surroundings? The answer in most cases was no. Instead of engaging in a conversation with someone I took out my cell phone and got on Facebook or played Candy Crush. Then I started to wonder what kinds of experiences I have missed out on because I was too zoned into my phone to notice anything or anyone else. 

I felt strongly about this topic because it was one that I could really relate to on a personal level. I really enjoyed this chapter because not only did it open my eyes to the issues in our society, and in my personal life, but it made me want to make changes. Being aware of these issues is incredibly important. I have always felt that living my life to the fullest is key to a happy life. Part of living my life to the fullest means gaining as many experiences as I can, spending quality time with the people I love and appreciating my surroundings. All of these things that are so important to me I have let be negatively effected by my cell phone. I do feel that cell phones were a wonderful technological advance and they have had many positive impacts on peoples lives. It is important for people to be aware of the issues that can consume their lives without them noticing. It is so important for our society to get their noses out of their cell phones and interact with their surroundings. We would all benefit because we would build more relationships and gain more personal experiences. 

Reference:

Varnelis, K. (Ed.).(2008). Networked Publics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

 

"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).

      Since I was a young child, to me, literacy  meant learning how to read a text and learning how to write. I knew it was important to be able to read and write well because that is what was driven into me as  a student. I believed I would not be able to succeed in life without these skills. It never occurred to me that literacy may mean much more than knowing how to read a book and write a "good" essay or piece of writing. It was always clear who the students were that struggled with these skills. These students would either not want to read in front of the class, leave the classroom for extra help, or struggle when reading. (I cannot imagine how this effected the children's self esteem and motivation.)  I was not aware of the fact, until I began my teaching education, that there are many influences that have impacted these students to have these difficulties with literacy and other skills. I had never considered this because I came from a family who always encouraged my reading and it was something that I was lucky to have never struggled with. The readings this week have opened my eyes to literacy and the different social impacts it has on people. 
     I feel that the quote above is stating that the way we present and/or teach literacy will have an impact on the "active citizen". That social impact will depend on the way these skills are shown to these "citizens'. I interpreted this as meaning the ways in which these skills are taught. Literacy must be taught in a way that will help the "citizen" grow in their own lives. Meaning that these literacy skills will not only help them grow academically (become better readers) but will also help them grow socially. I have seen many changes throughout my educational career in the way literacy is taught in classrooms. As a fourth grade teacher, I know that it is crucial to provide these students with different strategies for learning.  By having different learning techniques it allows all the students the opportunity to grow in their "learning lives". Having the students be able to read the story is an important part. However, that is just a small piece to a much bigger puzzle. We dig in to each story and dissect different parts of it. It is crucial that they are able to make connections with their own lives to situations that are happening in the story. This area is where I see some of my students struggle. I related to Lankshear and Knobel in Chapter 1 when they were discussing social classes often struggling with literacy. The majority of my students who struggle with understanding the deeper meanings of stories are my students who lack the experiences necessary to be able to connect with these characters and these situations. It is hard because, as a teacher, I cannot make these experiences for them outside of school. I think having students work in groups may have some positive impact on the situation. The students who do not have those experiences can hear the experiences of their fellow classmates. Although this isn't as effective as their own experiences it could still help the students relate to the characters and situations in the story. 
   Incorporating technology into the classroom is of high importance in my school district. Throughout my college classes, substitute teaching experiences, student teaching experiences, and my professional teaching experiences I have come to see many of the positive impacts that technology has on students. Technology allows the students to interact in a positive and fun way. Almost every student I have had loves using computer programs, iPad's and/or Kindle's. The students have so much fun using this equipment that they do not even realize they are learning. They are able to learn in an environment that is fun for them. When they are interested and engaged in the learning process it creates lasting knowledge. The more familiar the students become with these types of equipment the more technologically savvy they will become. I was hired a little over year ago for my position. Part of the requirement for my job was to be technologically educated. It was important that I was comfortable and efficient with computers and other types of technology. Being comfortable and familiar with these types of technology are so crucial for the students success in the future. By incorporating these technologies into literacy education it benefits the students in their educational lives and their in their social lives as well. I feel that the more professional development and training courses teachers receive on new technology and new literacies the more effective the classroom will be in giving these students knowledge they will use their entire lives.


References

Lankshear, C & Knobel, M. 2011. Literacies: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives. New York. Peter Lang Publishing.