Monday, July 7, 2014

Connecting with technology

    Turkle and Wesch give us two different perspectives on media and technology. Wesch demonstrates how the use of media and technology has changed our culture and how powerful it can be. He shows how you can use media and technology in a critical way, beyond just a social connection between people.Turkle looks at the art of conversation and how our society is losing it because of our need to feel connected and not alone.
    I think that both Turkle and Wesch present us valid points when it comes to media and technology. The art of conversing with others has been disappearing and being replaced by relationships that have been created on a virtual world. This shift has happened because it is human nature to communicate with one another and to feel that someone is listening and validating your thoughts. You can get this when you communicate on social media, creating an illusion of companionship, like Turkle mentions. I can see that on my FB feed. There's always a group of people who are constantly on FB, posting thoughts, ideas and people respond to that. When I get a notification, I can't wait to see what it is. I want to see who has liked or not liked what I posted. I feel like it's an obsession and it is hard to get away from FB. Thanks to FB, I've connected with many peoples and communities. I've found out about events and I have learned about my friends. I, however, could not trust a relationship that was created purely on FB. Maybe it's because I'm a digital immigrant. I enjoy having conversations face to face and, at the same time, I enjoy having connections and dialogues on social media. I try to find a happy place where my relationships are not just virtual or person-to -person, but in between those two. In the middle, just right.


    Wesch's video was quite powerful! We have been discussing how our students should become producers rather that just the receivers of knowledge and Wesch demonstrates just that. In today's world, we can connect with anyone around the world and our message can be heard. The video about Dove and Unilever was an example of how your message can be heard and how it can lead to change. I remember when the revolution in Egypt happened a few years ago. The news bombarded FB and I could see what was happening there because some of my FB friends who live there could report what was happening. They became the journalists, the reporters. I don't think I could have gotten the same news experience thru CNN news.
Wesch presents teachers with a challenge. We are used to teaching a certain way, the way our teachers taught us. We are comfortable with it are we are good at it. Shifting from "knowledgeable" from "knowledge- able" classrooms is crucial. If we want our kids to be ready for our world, they need to see how powerful they can be using technology critically.


2 comments:

  1. Cristina,

    You wrote my blog! Sort of ... The notes that I scratched while I was reading were very similar to you blog ... after the editing process the words changed, but the ideas remained the same. NICE!

    Gabe

    ReplyDelete