Potpourri

I am here going to attempt to capture the mishmash of various thoughts that I've been having in the past week or so, as they relate to the class, the flat world, technology, etc. etc.

So, as it turns out, I am not the world's best blogger. And I've kind of been musing lately about why that is. Because I have a lot of thoughts that would probably make interesting and at least somewhat relevent blog posts. And I certainly do a lot of reading of others' blogs, and I read the course blog at least once a day. I try to keep up with current events as much as I can stomach, and there's certainly fodder for blogs there. But for some reason, I just don't blog very much. Maybe because these thoughts come to me while I'm doing something else, like driving (I spend a lot of time in the car), or during observation or other classes, while working on other assignments, or watching TV. By the time I get to my computer and get it warmed up and check my email, it's like the moment has passed. Or, what I've been thinking about pertains to something that was addressed in class weeks ago and just doesn't seem as pertinent anymore. It's the lightning speed of this flat world. If I don't capture something in the moment, it feels like it's too late. And then there are blogs like James's, which is just a shining example of blogging at it's best, complete with the synthesis that Richardson cites as true blogging rather than just online journaling, which is my blog to a T. But the thing is, I don't really surf the web. Like, ever. When I get on the computer, it's for a specific purpose: to check email, look something up, get directions somewhere, do a class assignment. I have specific sites that I go to in order to accomplish something, but I don't really just browse around to see what's out there. Which obviously limits my blogging ability, especially my "true blogging" ablility because I don't have links to other interesting sites that I want to comment on. I guess I should make a conscious effort to work on that and to explore what's out there a little more so that I can improve my blogging skills.

I think that I'm sort of an interesting breed of digital immigrant. I have pretty decent skills when it comes to computers, at least PCs (macs are another story, but I'm working on it). I know how they function, and I can usually figure out how to use programs just by playing around. I pay my bills online, I use email and message boards to keep in contact with family and friends, I even know a teeny-tiny amount of html. I use a computer every single day. But I don't have a "digital mindset." My first instincts about how to go about something fall in line with the 2.0 world. If something interests me, I jot it down on a piece of paper--with a pen! I would rather sit down with a copy of Newsweek than go to newsweek.com for the same stories and photos. And the thing is, I'm not that old, so it's not a matter of, "Oh, I grew up without computers so I'm not used to them." We had a Commodore 64 and a Colecovision. I literally cannot remember not having some kind of computer in the house. So is it just my temperament? Hmmm...

Moving on, I finally have a placement for Kennedy's class (yay!), and did about 12 hours last week. I am in 11R and 11 honors, as well as journalism and SUPA, both for 12th grade. The teacher is less than inspiring, but that's a subject for a whole other blog post (coming soon). One of the things we had to do was give the students a reading/writing attitudes survey, which I did on Thurs. Anyone who took the class last year might remember this. The survey asks them about how much reading and writing they do outside of school, what they enjoy, what kind of writing activities or projects they have enjoyed in school. Reading their answers and discussing it with the kids a little bit really made me think about "What Does Reading Look Like Anyway?" So many of the students said, "I don't read outside of school," because they don't read books. I prompted them to think about other kinds of reading--blogs, comic books, emails, magazines, etc (there's a question on the survey that addresses this specifically)--and you can probably guess their response: "That's not really reading." Like the students that Kajder discusses, they think that only certain types of literacy "count." And, it seems to me, that they think the more likely they are to enjoy something, the less likely it is to count as true literacy. When, actually, the opposite is true. If the students enjoy something and find it meaningful, it is closer to true literacy than something they do because they have to or just for a grade.

Okay, I am going to close here, as this post is getting incredibly long, but there are still a lot of thoughts floating around, so stay tuned. Oh, but one last little anecdote in response to Karen's comment about the flat world and Outback Steakhouse (where I have the pleasure of bringing people steak for a living for those of you who didn't know). If you had asked me a week ago what Outback has to do with the flat world, I would have said "Probably nothing" because we are kind of low-tech as chain restaurants go. I mean, we still hand-write our tickets and physically give them to the cooks. How 2.0 can you get? But now, even the old Outback is going 3.0 with the introduction of our new online safety survey. All of the restaurant's employees are required to go online and listen to a safety presentation and then take a quiz about what we have learned. This is not available in paper format. The results of the test are sent to Outback Central or something electronically, and everyone is required to take it and pass. I'm wondering if they are going to face some of the issues with access that we teachers have been discussing, as I'm not sure that everyone toiling in the kitchen for $7 an hour has a computer with internet access. I think I'll ask my boss if that's an issue and how they're addressing it. In the immortal words of James Beach, technology marches on...right into the Outback.