Prompt 3

The internet has changed many aspects of life since it became widely popular, many youth and young adults spend large amounts of time on the internet, communicating, browsing and researching. The internet has also changed the way we read, think and understand information, these changes are neither all good nor all bad, but rather are a mix of both. In Is Google Making Us Stupid? Nicholas Carr identifies many of the effects that the internet has had on modern learners and readers, while he gives a pessimistic view of the internet he is aware that the pessimistic view of previous technologies – written language, printing press and TV – has been short sighted and there have also been positives to come out of each of the technologies. Even the categories of positives and negatives of the internet are fluid and will change from person to person. Below are the positives and negatives as I see them from Carr’s article.

Positives

- “research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes” (Carr, 2008, p. 57)

- Can spend time looking for information that you did not know existed or that you wanted, that is the essences of browsing

- You are able to seamlessly move from one source to another “Hyperlinks don’t merely point to related works; they propel you toward them” (Carr 2008, p. 57)

- We now have “immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information” (Carr, 2008, p. 57)

- Internet readers for the most part skim webpages and then jump to the next one in search of new and better information or stimuli

- “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s” (Carr 2008, p. 58)

- We are becoming efficient readers, the fast we ca access more information “faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers” (Carr 2008, p. 62)

Negatives

- People are rarely able to “get caught up in a narrative or the turns of the argument, and spend hours strolling through long stretches or prose” (Carr, 2008, p. 57)

- No longer able to concentrate on long articles or books, attention drifts after a few pages

- We suffer from something called silicon memory, we no longer have to remember knowledge as long as we know it can be accessed somewhere on the internet

- Because “media are not passive channels of information’ (Carr 2008, p. 57) the internet is also shaping the way we think and concentrate. The piecemeal design of websites and information online is changing how we think and humans are starting to take in information the way the internet gives it out.

- “the more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces or writing” (Carr 2008, p. 28)

- Some people have stopped reading books

- The internet is becoming “our map and our clocks, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and tv” (Carr 2008, p. 58)

- People often do not read” more than one or tow pages of an article or book before the ‘bounce’ out to another site” (Carr 2008, p. 58)

- We attention is scattered and our concentration is diffused

- Corporations such as Google are attempting to “increasingly control how people find information and extract meaning from it” (Carr 2008, p. 62)

- Corporations like Google and others can profit from tracking internet use and bombarding users with adds

- Thoughts and thinking is coming to be thought of as a mechanical process

Weighing the positive aspects of the internet against the negative ones it becomes hard to make a clear statement about weather or not the internet is aiding in the creation of knowledgeable, intelligent, free thinking citizens or if it is hindering it. It has to be kept in mind that all of the effects of the internet on readers and thinkers will not be known for sometime and until then there will always be those who feel that the internet and sites such as Google, who provide instant access to information are making us stupid.

TV shows like Jersey Shore or Skins on the other hand, I firmly believe are making us stupid. There is no solid content to ground these shows in, they exist only to provide a form of entertainment, a form that can not be a reality for anyone. As least shows like South Park, make a mockery of current events and topics, if nothing else at least those who watch South Park gain some understanding of the world around them. The viewers of Jersey Shore do not, the show exists to allow people to live vicariously through the characters. To dream of living in a world where they could never live, the closest anyone has come to living the life of the characters of Jersey Shore are other famous people but they too fall short. Take Charlie Sheen for example, looking through current celebrity news he party’s as hard as Snooki or The Situation, but his life is not a glamorous our carefree as theirs, instead he is being pushed towards sobriety and counseling. The message Jersey shore is giving to the younger views does not reflect the reality of the world in which they live nor the one they will continue to live in. They will have to get a job, be sober, not starting fights and not seeking sex from much of the day and will have to earn a living, all of which runs counter to the themes in the show. Not to discredit the youth and young adults of today, but because Jersey Shore is portrayed as a reality TV show, many of them have the idea that this is one option for life as a young adult, and further that it is an acceptable lifestyle.

Carr, N. (2008, July/August). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic , 148, 56 – 63.

Prompt 2

In her article Sherk Meets Vygotsky: Rethinking Adolescents’ Multimodal Literacy Practise in Schools Kathy Mills attempts to make a few notions clear. Mills argues that there is a need to recognize that not all adolescents are digital natives nor do they interact with the internet or other such technologies on a regular basis. She demonstrates this through studies in both the USA and Australia of low income schools and the prevalence of computer and internet usage at home and school. She continues on to argue that there is a place for multimodal learning in the classroom but the learning must be scaffolded and be at the highest level of the students level of proximal development. An important part of including multimodal learning in the classroom is that not all the education should not be “situated in youths’ out-of-school literacy experiences” (Mills 2010. Pg 37), by this she means that while it is important to include some of the youths’ out of school experiences, teachers must still include other experiences that will help educate the students and make them productive members of society. For Mills the definition of multimodal is pretty basic, “the combination of two or more modes in representation – linguistic (written words), visual, audio, gestural and spatial” (Mills 2010. PG 35). It is important to keep this definition of multimodal in mind when engaging the born digital generation because most of the youth are in one way or another engaging in this kind of text. While some students may not be as exposed as other students – this is where the need to scaffold comes in – all students to some degree use multimodal text, most textbooks now combined printed work along with pictures, movies combine visual images and gestures with verbal language. It is almost impossible to escape from the multimodal text.

As for the composition of text – whether by the student, instructor or someone else – they use of multimodal text will continue to play and increase role of importance. This is largely because of the youths access to content tht is multimodal – books, tv, movies, graphic novels, the internet, ect – due to this, students are more comfortable and less intimidated by this type of text than say a text that only contained printed word. Students themselves may find it easier to produce text or assignments that are not primary print based; however, this could be because they often engage in multimodal text or because for them it is still a new and exciting process.

As future educators, the prospect of multimodal composition is both exciting and somewhat scary. As students become more versed in creating their own multimodal text the possibilities for them will be endless. Perhaps one day we will see the stranded pen and paper test replaced with a the students developing a short video explaining the main concepts of a chapter through a re-enactment with subtitles, or creating a stop motion video or composing and recording a song. This also means there is an infinite number of ways teaches can develop a text that will hopefully engage students in the learning process while at the same time not isolating the students home life or leisure time from the experience they have at school. The endless opportunities for both the students and the teachers also make the use of multimodal text and their creation scary, no one knows where the combination of modes of communication will end, or what might be next. For most the unknown is always scary, but the added element of having to learn new skills to stay ‘current’ in multimodal composition can also be a daunting task.

Suzanne Miller takes a similar stance as to the importance of multimodal literacy in her article English Teacher Learning for New Times: Digital Video Composing as Multimodal Literacy Practice as Mills did. She agrees that the use of multimodal text is an important part of the new education that today's students need. Miller defines multimodal as the “emergence of domains besides language at the center of everyday communication” (Miller 2007. Pg 62) and it is these domains that “bind adolescents together in a social culture through communication and meaning making” (Miller 2007. Pg 62). Throughout her article Miller states that teachers need to first learn how to include multimodal text, learning and assignments into the classroom in order to do this they themselves must first experience multimodal learning. Miller recognizes that the students of today grow up in social world where they are always connected to each other and the content they are creating, she argues that the way to educate these young people is through social means, have the students “connect curriculum to their lives outside school” (Miller 2007. Pg71) and do this by having them work together on non-print reliant projects. The creation of multimodal text can coincide with the current curriculum, for example both Mills and Miller use digital video composing to show this and compare the process to that of creating an essay, they found the two to be very similar. Lastly, the inclusion of multimodal text and assignments meet the students in their own realm of the world which gives them the added benefit of comfortable expressing their voices and allows for a greater number of students to engaging in the material.

It has become important to engage students in multimodal text because they “have grown up in a world surrounded and shaped by practices related to computers, the internet and mobile phones” (Miller 2007. Pg 62) but what this really means is that they have been surrounded with multimodal texts since birth and the need to employ multimodal activities to communicate will only continue to grow. Every aspect of their lives has involved some forms of multimodalities, they TV shows they watch, the websites they browse, the texts or emails they send with a picture attached are all examples of this. Further, as the students get older and enter the work world they will need to know how to read, understand, and interpret more than just the printed word; therefore schools should be preparing them for this reality. This reality also one where you do not need to know everything rather you need to know “how to find, gather, use, communicate and create new ways of envisioning assemblages of knowledge” (Miller 2007. Pg 64).

Many of the teachers from the older generation and to an extent new teachers also try to keep to the idea that literacy and assignments mean only printed text. To engage the digital native Miller argues that teachers must be taught how to design multimodal text and assignments that are meant to grab the students attention and interests. In the example, digital video composing was used, it was used and it showed that students had to “plan for visual images and audio narrative on a storyboard: import the footage into computer software, and then edit images and sounds into a coherent text by cutting pasting and manipulating – much like word processing” (Miller 2007. Pg 66). The composition of multimodal text needs to gain acceptance in academic circles so that teachers become willing to accept it as a learning tool and acceptable method of assessment. The composition of multimodal text or design-based performance encourages students to find and create meaning for themselves.

According to Miller, multimodal composition will allow students a way to engage in information can classes they might otherwise have ‘checked-out’ of long before the material was being taught. The use of multimodal text allows educators to continue teaching students while at the same time meeting them on a middle ground where they are more comfortable and experienced. The use of “design-based performances, they have embodied experience of engaging in purposeful orchestration of modes to create meaning” (Miller 2007. Pg 66). Further, before a teacher can create a purposeful multimodal text or design-based performance / assessment they must first learn how to design, create and scaffold these experiences for student learning to occur.

Miller, S. (2007). English teacher learning for new times: Digital video composing as multimodal literacy practice. English Education, 40(1) 61–83.

Mills, K. (2010). Shrek meets Vygotsky: Rethinking adolescents’ multimodal literacy practices in schools. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(1), 35 – 45.

Prompt 1

The quote to be discussed below comes from Sven Birkerts’ The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, and I think is a great way to summarize how some feel about the state of the late printed age.

“The printed word is part of a vestigial order that we are moving away from – by choice and by societal compulsion” (Birkerts 1994, p. 118)

Sven Birkerts takes on a rather bleak outlook of books and printed word in The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, Birkerts might be biased in this claim because of his job as a book buyer – he is more than likely an avid reader and proponent of books and printed text. Nonetheless, Birkerts initially expresses the view that printed text will soon find itself along side the floppy disk as once useful pieces of technology that are now long forgotten in the minds of most. Like many who are not born digital or from the digital age, the professor of English tells Birkerts, “No, but I am getting out. Out of the teaching business, I mean. Out of books” (Birkerts 1994, p. 117). Somewhere in human history – or at least Western human history – education and teaching became closely related to the printed word and books, one is not educated unless they are well read. I have often heard the layperson also express this same view on education, it is not uncommon to hear someone say ‘they are street smart’ which in a sense means they know how to survive or get by but that is all they know. Personally, I do not share the bleak outlook that Birkerts has for the book and printed text, I am more inclined to support his later claim – or parts of the claim – that

“we are living through a period of overlap; one way of being is pushed athwart another. Antonio Gramsci”s often cited sentence comes inevitably to mind: “the Crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear” (Birkerts 1994, p. 212).

He goes on to claim that the old – books and printed word – is dying, while I do agree that we are living in a period of overlap, I do not agree that the old way is dying. As shocking a revelation as this may be, youth today do still read! As we discussed in class, digital natives often read in different ways than did digital immigrants, but the information and knowledge is still being engaged in by the digital native. I have never seen a digital native pick up the Sunday paper and do the crosswords but I have seen numerous of them playing word games online competing against each other in real time. Is the printed word really dying? No, how about evolving? Sure I can comfortably say that. The handwriting of digital natives – or lack there of – is what should be more concerning than the death of books or printed word. Books like the printed word are adapting to new forms, with the advent of eReaders the book has a whole new platform to propel itself forward and to welcome in the digital native in to the fold of literature! Publishing companies have realized they need to meet the digital natives on their playground - that is full of technology, shiny objects and ease of access – not the playground of their parents which at best had a tire swing and slide.

As a reader, I do not think the book or printed text is in any real danger. Being born into the digital generation has not made me avoid books or reading, what it has allowed me to do is to read books that I never would have thought possible. Now with the ease of the internet I can search for a book, look for ones in a similar genre, by different authors, and even have websites recommend books to me based on my likes and dislikes of previous books. Where the internet has really opened up new avenues for book exploration is in websites that help readers to understand main concepts, language, ideas and themes. I have used these websites when reading difficult texts such as The Heart of Darkness, they do not distract from the book but rather enhanced my experience.

“The astronomer reading a map of stars that no longer exist; the Japanese architect reading the land on which a house is to be built so as to guard it rom evil forces; the zoologist reading the spoor of animals in the forest; the card-player reading her partner’s gestures before playing the winning card; the dancer reading the choreographer’s notations, an the public reading the dancer’s movements on the stage, the weaver reading the intricate design of a carpet being woven; the organ-player reading various simultaneous strands of music orchestrated on the page; the parent reading the baby’s face for signs of joy or fright, or wonder; the Chinese fortune-teller reading the ancient marks on the shell of a tortoise; the lover blindly reading the loved one’s body at night, under the sheets; the psychiatrist helping patients read their own bewildering dreams’ the Hawaiian fisherman reading the ocean currents by plunging a hand into the water; the farmer reading the weather in the sky – all these share with the book-readers the craft of deciphering and translating signs.” Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading, 1996, p. 7.

It is interesting that Manguel acknowledges that reading involves more than reading a book, but rather that reading is involved in almost ever aspect of everyday life. Like Birkerts, Manguel presents one side of an idea early on but then later seems to jump to the other side, as if, like a coin the two concepts can not co-exist but must be one or the other. Initially, before starting the alternative text course I would have to admit I understood reading to be the activity done with a book or words at the vary least, unless it was other wise specified – like map reading – reading was something that only happened when you had text – in the form of words – in front of you. However, I have come to understand reading to be everything listed in the quote at the start of this section and much much more. Manguel, would appear to take the approach as well, as you move through the chapter, he moves closer to the idea that the only type of reading is that that is done with a book or text. There are no claims that reading is falling to the way side, although, there are urges from parents to “go out and live” (Manguel 1996, p. 21). Unlike in Birkerts article where he see’s digital natives as not reading enough, Manguel from his past experiences shows how todays parents often feel when they see their child spending time reading. Is society really coming to that? Do parents think their kids read too much? Probably not, but this is closer to my own childhood, where my parents would tell me to at least go outside and read. I found that much of the chapter was filled with Manguel ‘book-dropping’ – much like name-dropping. While at one time in society it might have been impressive to list off the books that you have read, in the digital age, I find that not only is this not impressive it is almost annoying. I know personally I was left wondering if Manguel did not have anything better to do with his time. Reading the long list of books Manguel describes having read shows the other side of the coin from the quote at the top of this section. He has flipped the coin and now shows, intentionally or not, that reading is only done when you sit with a book and does not include any of the acts of life he previously described as reading. This made me think; maybe I am more of a digital native than I had originally thought. I have read my fair share of books, and the older I get the more I read for school and not pleasure, my lack of personal reading of books has not manifested itself in reading of other kinds such as movies, tv, the stars or maps; however, I have found myself engaging in digital text more, when I look out the window at the world outside and wondering what the leaves and bark of trees can tell me, what the deer is trying to say to me when it stares at me. These realizations have made me understand that reading IS more than engaging with a book, reading is fully participating in life and engaging in the environment around you. I have no qualms about reading a book on my computer, nor did I find it any different than reading a book in paper copy – unlike some who have expressed their dislike of ebooks because they lose the feel of the book. Maguel hit on what the internet has allowed books to become for digital natives though and that is something that they can take and poses and make their own – for better of worst. This is nothing new, and for centuries readers have been doing this, ‘in the early Middle Ages, scribes would supposedly ‘correct’ errors they might perceive in the text they were copying, thereby producing a ‘better’ text” (Manguel 1996, p 15). Just like those ancient scribes, digital readers like to take and make things their own and improve upon what others have done, digital books and text has allowed this to become a wide spread reality.

Birkerts, S. (1994). The Gutenberg elegies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Manguel, A. (1996). A history of reading. Toronto, ON: Vintage Canada.