What experience do you have working with online social media or digital composition as a way to connect with others? As a way to promote social action? (e.g. blogging, Pinterest, video production, etc.)? Drawing on the readings for this week, describe the potentials and pitfalls you see for digital media in urban, English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms.
I think when people hear the words "digital composition", we think of some hifalutin ideas where it's something only people with technical experience can do, like making a VR video game that makes noises based on where your hands are, or a goofy video to share your knowledge. In reality, it's literally anything we do with a digital device. Like making talking on the phone or sharing pictures on snapchat. It's something that we've all done!
Digital composition, with it's ability to allow anyone to produce media, has drastically changed social activism. The ability to record video evidence has made it much easier to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. This isn't a recent development as well. In the 1990s, when Rodney King was assaulted by police officers, a video recording from an onlooker proved it happened. This eventually led to two police being imprisoned and King to receive millions of dollars in damages. While it is unfortunate that we have these same problems decades after, it is positive seeing people all over using digital media to continue to keep police accountable, share their locations during a protest, and share information that helps others learn more about the problems in our society.
Of course, schools don't see it this way. As Haddix and Sealey-Ruiz (2012) point out, "in many urban districts I work with, the same tools and practices get policed and censored. Students are prohibited from using them. Even further, the use of digital tools is sometimes viewed as “dumbing down” students’ literacy skills or practices (pg. 190). My school is no different. My students go through a metal detector each day and are forced to give their phones to the principal, who then lock it up. While this would not be a problem if there were ample opportunities for students to use technology. It is simply not the case. At my school, there is 1 active computer lab. That means, if one teacher wants it, they must gain it weeks in advance, hoping one of the veteran teachers hasn't grabbed it weeks in advance. When they get in the computer lab, it becomes obvious that there are only 22 computers, far below the class sizes, which means hoping students are absent, or always requiring students to work as partners. Once students get on the computers, it becomes obvious they are not powerful enough to run simple programs. What would take 1 minute on a phone would take 4 on the computers.
As Jenkins (2006) notes, "What a person can accomplish with an outdated machine in a public library with mandatory filtering software and no opportunity for storage or transmission pales in comparison to what person can accomplish with a home computer with unfettered Internet access, high band-width, and continuous connectivity" (pg.13). And Jenkins is right! I have been able to do so much more engaging projects with my students through virtual learning rather than in the actual classroom. If I wanted to change my plans and do a student-led research project about famous Black Milwaukeeans for a day, I can. If I was in the classroom, I can guarantee the lab would have been taken, and it would have taken more time to load information and find information.
Students in districts with less funding are falling behind their peers because the schools can't afford to get these supplies. This is why it is so essential that we fight against the technology gap in schools. We can't afford to leave our students behind where there's so much to gain from high quality technology in schools, and if we can't, maybe it's time to let students use their phones as a tool for learning.
Wow! It's so sad but completely unsurprising that students in districts with less funding are falling behind when they don't have access to sufficient technology. The digital divide that Jenkins talked about has only become a greater issue now that COVID has forced learning to go completely virtual in many schools. I also like what you said about digital composition playing a huge role in activism. -Grace Armstrong
ReplyDeleteI love these ideas! Interestingly enough, I don't think the quarantine made the digital divide worse. I think it actually made the physical divide worse. Wealthy parents can use resources to personally pay teachers to teach their students (and sometimes a few others). The schools with large income can also afford high quality PPC, social distancing materials, and have larger classrooms to spread out in. This lets them go in person far more effectively than their peers. Here's a little resource about their pandemic pods. https://schoolchoiceweek.com/learning-pods/
DeleteIt's unfortunate that significant gaps in resource availability exist, especially given that you mentioned how technology can be used as a democratic tool to promote social justice. Differences in access to resources will always exist, but I can't help but feel like the gaps would be less severe if there were fewer negative stigmas about technology in the classroom. Hopefully we can make the best of a bad situation and this quaratine will have demonstrated the value of technological tools in education.
ReplyDelete-Conner Roozen
DeleteWell put! I don't know if there's a stigma against technology. It might be better to consider it a stigma against student freedom. After all, each school has some sort of computer lab or technological device that helps them. Cell phones are different though, because teacher's can't control them. This can lead to a lot of different power struggles in the classroom and may be the reason phones are usually banned.
DeleteI also mentioned the technology gap in my blog because I think people sometimes fail to realize that there are schools without adequate access to technology. It's so important for us to work on closing that gap and make urban schools equal to their suburban counterparts. I also wanted to comment on the use of social media to advocate for social justice issues. I was an adult before social media existed and it's been so cool to see how social media is used to share information on what's going on and has enabled people to more easily become involved in the issues that matter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I think Social Media gets a lot of flack (flak?) for being separate from real world problems. I think these angles fail to recognize all the organization and communication tools social media offers society.
DeleteThank you all for the rich discussion you all shared here. It goes to show that our words are not fixed thoughts but rather temporary holders of an idea, inviting movement through dialoge.
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