The Digital Divide

Banks and Selfe & Selfe are both primarily concerned with how technology can play a restrictive role for people stuck on the other side of the digital divide. Although it may be nice, and even common, to believe that technology is the great democratic equalizer we've all been waiting for, the situation is not nearly as straightforward. Banks specifically addresses how the issue of access to technology affects racial minorities, specifically African Americans. Selfe & Selfe are more focused on the technology itself can have violent, colonizing effects on its users. They both came at this issue from different angles, however, both urge teachers to create students who won't just consume technology but will actively critique it, too.

Power and agency are written all over these two articles. Selfe & Selfe want to take away some of the all-encompassing power held by technology producers and put it in the hands of teachers and students. While we may not be able to re-write the software (at least not right now), we also may not have to. Instead, we can simply study technology's many interfaces to figure out what improvements we would want. While reading the chapter, I wasn't sure what the authors were ultimately trying to argue for - because I certainly don't know anything about computer programming. However, by allowing us (as teachers and students) to start this process by critiquing technology, this plan also will let me, anyway, learn more about the technology I'll be analyzing.

Banks specifically wants to put power and agency into the hands of black Americans, and he clearly lays out the groundwork for this with his extensive survey on research in the field of African American rhetoric with regard to technology access. He makes the argument that not just material access that matters because people must also be willing and know how to use it. Coming from a rural part of Iowa, I can easily apply this sentence to most of my neighbors as well as the African American community. I like that Banks speaks honestly about public access to computers - most of the time you'd have to go to a cramped public library and be restricted to only a certain amount of time. Is that really the same thing as sitting on your couch, laptop on the coffee table, going through menus and learning how your computer works? Absolutely not - and that factor is the same across racial lines.

As for what Foucault would say to all this? Perhaps these are two different ways to attempt to buck the Panopticon, but ultimately, it still feels a little like we're fighting a losing battle here. In Selfe & Selfe we're told to start analyzing technology for its colonizing, dominant role - but no matter what, technology is still going to be political. We can learn to distance ourselves from it and be cognizant of its colonizing effects, but I still had to jump through about 16 different web pages before I could finally reach this one, and no amount of analysis was going to save me from that. In Banks, it's made clear that material access is only the tip of the iceberg because people also have to have a reason and know how to use technology. How do we give that to anyone on the other side of the digital divide without ultimately becoming missionaries for technology (and doing some colonization ourselves?). It's a tricky situation, and Foucault might just tell us that we're all trying really hard - but still very stuck.

Face-off: Hesse v Selfe

I hate to take the Midwestern and mom-like position of "You're both right!" However...

Selfe's argument is well-thought out and compelling. In Eng. 501, we just read about some of the English department's history in the university, and as a Communication Studies major, it saddens me that most of my classmates have never had the joy (and terror and apprehension) of taking a class in public address. I found that the best speeches I gave started extemporaneously, with me just talking to myself, leaving the writing process until dead-last. While my background in learning how to formulate a written argument played a role, the students who struggled the most in public speaking are those who don't adapt their content to their presentation's form. It's true that aurality has taken a backseat to writing, and students (including us current grad students) may be handicapped for that. Learning about as many different modes of communication as possible would serve to enrich our students' lives - along with giving them tangible, real-world composing skills that all sorts of companies would love to have.

However, Hesse also makes a good point. What Selfe is calling for is a drastic re-thinking of composition. While this new definition might fly within English departments and Rhetoric and Composition, it would be necessary to sell this idea to not only other departments, but the administration and students as well. It certainly runs the risk of being seen as taking away from the "serious" work of writing. Another point on which I agree with Hesse is his questioning of just how much composing (not just writing, but creating videos, web pages, sound clips, etc.) students are actually doing outside the classroom. Personally, and before this class, I had a Twitter, Blogger, and Facebook account, and in all three I spent much more time consuming than composing. Sure, I tweeted and blogged every once in a while, and commented or changed my status once a day - but I wouldn't say that I (or most people I know of) are really utilizing all these modes. Perhaps Selfe might respond by saying that is all the more opportunity to teach these kids how to engage more fully in their world - a point I'd be inclined to agree with.

In the end, I side more with Selfe, but I like the cautionary approach of Hesse. He brings up practical problems that would need to be addressed for these changes to be implemented fully, things that can be easy to ignore when caught up in the frenzy of academic theory.

My long-term commitment to computer technology (and some new media thoughts)

In nearly every developed facet of my life, computer technology is nearly essential. I'd like to think that I could get by without it, but who am I kidding - I'm in love. I imagine in that regard that I'm not much different from many of my fellow children of the digital age. I use my laptop to check the weather, read the news, keep in contact with old friends and keep tabs on "friends" I haven't spoken to in years. I use it to store all of my music, photos, and writings. My laptop lets me do everything from look at terrible photos of celebrities to sending my grandma pictures of my new apartment.

As a student, my relationship with computer technology is even closer. I don't just want access to e-mail, a word processor, and the library's online catalog - I need it to get my work done. Look at this blog post; I needed my laptop in order to complete a simple class assignment. I don't yet know how technology will affect my teaching, but if the classes I'm taking now are any indication, I'll at least need e-mail and some sort of site in which I can organize my class.

Computer technology is necessary for me, and at times it can be a hindrance. I have some friends and relatives who are upset when I don't respond immediately to a message from them - but these are mostly the people I know who have smart phones or other mobile Internet gadgets. They're expecting me to always be available like they are. And the thing is, I could go on and on about how personally inconvenient it would be for my mom to have a really good reason to think I'm ignoring her, but I know I'll eventually jump on the bandwagon. Otherwise, I'll get left behind.

However, I'm not entirely onboard with Wysocki's definition of new media, so I'm having a hard time linking it to how I might run my own classroom. Although she tries (a couple times) to state what it clearly is, she manages to illustrate more clearly what it isn't ("...we probably ought not give up our own agency by acting as though technologies come out of nowhere and are autonomous in causing effects" 19). One section I found confusing or troublesome was, "Under the definition I offer not just any computer-screen text counts as 'new media': just because a newly published textbook (for example) has an online component does not mean that what is online is 'new media'" (18-19). She goes on to state that these new media (cell phones, scanners, etc.) don't cause us to interact with them differently. Wysocki is very concerned with people staying in charge of technology - not the other way around. I don't understand why this issue gets so much play (nearly a full page of the book). It seems like an implicit argument.

Ok, so in my head this wanting-stay-in-control-of-technology thing looks a lot more like Terminator, but another point I wonder about is why Wysocki feels that if new media is going to be used effectively it has to be so loud about it? She stresses new media "as texts where we keep their materiality visibly, both as we work to make them and as we hold them before us" (19). When writing a good reflective essay, one of the things a writer tries to do is not call attention to the fact that someone will be reading this essay. Isn't that why we tell writers to stay away from cliches and overused phrases like "My next point is. In conclusion"?

This section also had me constantly thinking about advertising. Maybe it's because I'm really missing watching "Mad Men" right now, but it seems like advertising companies have been all over new media since someone realized you could sell it. And then sell space on/in it. Anyway, good commercials don't call attention to the fact that they're commercials - instead they use anything they can find to hook you into wanting to know more. When I think about all the other people and businesses who have been using new media in really effective and interesting ways, it seems as though composition teachers aren't so much standing in front of a golden opportunity as chasing a missed bus.

Unrelated Mostly

I just remembered this awesome YouTube video a professor showed me a while ago - and since it's kind of related to this class, I'll just go with it. I think it's pretty funny, so take a study break. I suppose you can comment on this if you want...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Yancey Response

The very first thing I have to do is describe what I think my job as a writing instructor is? Tough question. I mean, the only things I've read about writing pedagogy has been a couple articles this week, and we all know I've never set foot in front of a classroom before. However, I've been a student in plenty of different writing classes, so I can certainly give this a go.

My first instinct is to make sure that all my students are at comparable levels in basic skills, or GUMS (grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling) as my high school English teacher called it. After spending three years copyediting my college's newspaper, I have a hard time letting this very basic principle take a backseat. However, it seems silly to drill students in how to use a semicolon when they could be focusing on how to make the actual content of their assignment stronger. I suppose another reason why basic skills jumps to mind is because of that one piece of writing that essentially everyone has to do - writing a resume or filling out a job application. While organization will certainly help, if a student makes frequent spelling and punctuation errors, they're almost certain to end up in the trashcan rather than the acceptance pile.

Perhaps a better skill I would like my students to learn is how to write for their audience. A simple journaling assignment can change drastically depending on whether it's written for oneself, the teacher, or other students to read. For example, if it's written just for oneself, emphasis on the writing's organization will probably drop - hopefully allowing the student to explore a concept freely. Even the content of this blog entry has been altered because I know my professor and possibly other students will read this. If a student manages to learn how to write for an audience, then I know they are able to assess what they mean to write and give thought to the best way to convey their message. This can easily be associated to incorporating technology into the classroom, given how changing the medium from a tweet to a YouTube vide to an e-mail can easily change the content.

Just instinctually, I feel myself drawn to teaching the way I was taught. Emphasis on the nuts and bolts and leave the invention of actual content to the back burner, which also tends to deemphasize anything that's not print writing. I'm one of those stodgy people sneering at social networking - and I haven't even stepped in front of a classroom yet! I find myself hesitant about Yancey's inspirational speech because my mental picture of a writing classroom doesn't include a lot of tweeting or video editing. However, if this is how we are composing now... It would be ridiculous to ask student to write a paper with chalk, on a typewriter, or even pen and paper. Perhaps we're now moving on to yet a different way of composing which may make the word processor obsolete. I suppose my intent meshes with Yancey in that I want to make these new mediums essential parts of the classroom, however, I am hesitant about its actual execution.