Unit 1 Draft

Source Analysis #1: Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology by Dennis Baron

For the first reading assigned in WRT 205, we were asked to read "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology" by Dennis Baron. Within this text, lots of interesting points were made about the evolution of writing and how it has drastically changed over years and years of formal words. The first writing technology was writing itself, posed Baron. Writing wasn't made to translate speech, which most assume that this was the case, but in contrary, it was actually to keep track of tax accounts and transactions. Writing actually allows humans to communicate in ways that speech does not. Writing can develop your own unique self thoughts, while speech is more of an indication of where you came from and who you grew up around. Later on in the article, he examines how the pencil turned to a lap top and so on. The pencil was actually not developed to write, but instead it was created to mark off measurements when people were building new structures. Through the process of developing technology, we now have computers. Computers provide the ability to write anytime, anywhere, any place to get your thoughts down and edit correctly. This allows almost all people to have an education because of the easy access that is provided to them. With this being said, a group called "Lead Pencil Club", which advocates for the use of pencils against computers, also known as the old fashioned way. The say that using a pencil instead of a computer allows for more memory and thought to be put into the brain than being able to quickly write. Baron wrote, "After more than a decade of study, we still know relatively little about how people are using computers to read and write, and the number of people on-line, when viewed in the perspective of the total population of the United States, or of the world -- the majority of whose residents are still illiterate -- is still quite small. Literacy has always functioned to divide haves from have nots, and the problem of access to computers will not be easy to solve." Technology has its strengths and weaknesses, as does everything. The computer will either allow us to advance into society or turn us into human beings relying on a system to get the job done for us, instead of using our own minds to think our own thoughts.

Source Analysis #2 - Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators 

Use Technology to Improve Student Learning

To have a successful learning environment, specifically in a classroom, it is not necessarily important for there to be a vast majority of options to choose from on a technological side of thinking. With this being said, technology does allow for the brain to learn in different ways with the use of technology. Katherine McKnight and her team conducted focus groups and interviews, where they asked students and faculty how they enjoyed using and learning with technology. In addition, when it came to asking teachers on what they thought about technology in the classroom, most of the questions stemmed from their familiarity with the technology products they had been provided. If they knew how to use them adequately or if they did not use them because they did not know how.

After browsing through their research findings and graphs, they reasoned with a few questions: the participants' teaching history, their beliefs on if technology is even helpful in the classroom, if it is a challenge use technology, and much more. I will list some of the graphs below so it is easier to comprehend the numbers they received.

Graph Info

Ultimately, after the study was finished, they found some interesting conclusions. Technology allowed for better individualized attention in the classroom. Teachers even stated five key benefits that were provided: (a) Shy students could record and present on a device, instead of live, in front of the class; (b) online assessments presenting items individually helped focus easily distracted students; (c) autistic students remained on task longer via the aid of personalized visual schedule applications; (d) nonvocal students participated in discussion boards; and (e) special education students improved reading fluency by recording themselves reading a book. All of these five things have proven to be extremely beneficial for each student, no matter their learning condition or what helps them learn best. 

Technology is evolving and improving each day in the classroom.

Direct Quotes: 

"From the plethora of media comparison research conducted over the past 60 years, we have learned that it's … the instructional methods that cause learning. When instructional methods remain essentially the same, so does the learning, no matter which medium is used to deliver instruction."

"Another role that emerged from the data was the use of technology to enhance communication and feedback between students, teachers, and parents. Examples of enhanced communication in this study include collaborative online work between students, online polling of students during class, and detailed analytics and progress monitoring."

"Using technology, students can authentically extend the purpose and audience of their work. They can actively find their own information to support the construction of knowledge that can then be shared with a larger community that extends beyond the walls of the classroom."

Source #3 - Technology in the Classroom by Ethan Dickens

For my third blog post, I wanted to explore a Ted Talk of a student who has been using new technology in the classroom and get real feedback about it. Ethan Dickens, an eighth grader from Pasco County Schools does just that. He uses humor and facts to give lots of credit to technology and how it helps students learn. In addition, he also begins his speech about the health of students and how they lug around huge textbooks everyday in their backpacks, but when provided technology, this saves a lot of pressure on a growing adolescent.

Ethan touches on the basics. Applications and notes can help students with bad handwriting, eyesight problems, and more. But, what I found most surprising in this short Ted Talk was that Ethan spent time making sure parents understand the parameters of giving their kids a phone, tablet, and/or computer. Parents can enable settings inside of these devices so that they are not able to view anything on the internet, especially toxic people, as we have discussed in class.

Ethan was a courageous kid getting up in front of thousands of people to discuss how technology is bettering himself and his classmates in a world that is becoming more and more technologically focused.

Direct Quotes:

"An average child uses technology for 7 and a half hours daily"
"A phone is about 3 grams of weight, which can end up doing remotely anything you need, including textbooks that can be quite heavy."
"Audio, visually, and actually doing it helps the learning process. Technology provides all of these to occur."

Ethan's Speech Picture