First Post

I haven't had a blog for a while. I started using xanga, (remember that?), towards the end of high school through my first year or two here. I've since given up. I thought it was shallow and full of boring ramblings that I don't know why anyone would actually read. I'm kind of excited to see where these blogs go...I feel like I have a reason to ramble now--which I guess means it's not rambling anymore.

I was thinking about our discussion today in regard to the generation gap and the comparison between moving from pre-literacy to literacy with the invention of the printing press and eventually movable type to moving from pre-internet literacy to internet literacy with the creation of the internet, or at least the space and technology that allows for an internet. I feel like we are stuck thinking, from a pedagogical standpoint, in terms of a very particular way of what it means to "learn". Until this is grappled with on a larger scale, we are stuck in a classroom teacher vs. technology war (this is the article mentioned today http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/education/07education.html). I find this article to be so frustrating.

To learn is not to sit in a desk and be lectured to. Maybe it was, but though it may work for some, we are neglecting the broader student base and need to be aware that in an era where we (as I'm doing right now) can watch TV (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), text message, and do homework, educators need to engage students in all these ways. When students, or teachers for that matter, get lost or distant, it's because we are failing to address all of our needs. Pedagogy needs to change, and the first step to doing this is addressing, problematizing, and reconsidering with all teachers, not just pre-service ones, what it means to "think", to "know", and to "learn".