Rather than advocating for this new mobile technology, Burrus urges readers to be critical of who's in control, stating
Now when we're on vacation, we're really not on vacation. We're simply at work in another location with more free time. We're checking our email and waiting for that important message to come in when reading a book or sitting by the pool. Our work problems are not far away, they are all only a quick text, email, or call away. We can even see each other on our phones now, making it easy to have a quick video conference with others from just about anywhere. As a result, customers and colleagues who depend on us can, and often expect to get a quick response from us whenever they need to.
I think bringing in a topic like this can have a lot of validity for students in thinking about their technology use. My hopes is to include this reading the the first unit that contains my technology literacy narrative (perhaps as a reflective reading/response after the completed project?). In addition, I think this is an important notion for us to consider as digital humanist, and largely graduate students hoping to stay within the academy. Part of being in this profession is the expectation that much of our work comes home with us. As a result, the lines between work and play become blurred. Personally, I find myself constantly checking my email and responding to students as I'm sitting at home watching tv, trying to spend quality time with my boyfriend. My dependency upon technology has caused some riffs in my real life relationships, as friends and family become frustrated with my technology use, commenting that I am "addicted". As Burrus indicates, "It's time to take control of our technology and our lives so that we can rediscover the wonderful treasures that are buried in those separate realities we once had. Remember, there's a time to plug in and a time to unplug. Choose wisely."
I think having these discussions in the beginning of a DTC 101 course can really help to set the framework so how we can begin to metacognitively approach technology and its use in not only the academic setting, but our personal lives as well. Recognizing these intersections between these two "chunks" of our lives is important as we work to balance that tightrope of human vs. machine.
Lucy,
ReplyDeleteI think that your prospective effort "begin to metacognitively approach technology and its use in not only the academic setting, but our personal lives," is not only important but timely as well. As instructors, we should be seeking out and enacting these possibilities in our classrooms, in order to create more bridges between the work students do in and for the classroom and their lives outside of it. Digital technologies and interfaces are certainly ripe venues to do this sort of work, but I also wonder how far we can go with this idea(l) without seriously impinging upon students' sense of privacy and propriety. Which is to say that students may have particular thresholds in terms of the media and platforms that we build into the very framework of our courses. Might we be going too far by employing cell phones or hosting classroom activity on Facebook? These are questions that I don't have an answer for right now, but I am curious to hear what you think of all of this. Thanks so much for sharing.
Mark
Lucy,
ReplyDeleteThis article sounds like a great read! What I think is interesting, though, and this might be an interesting conversation to have with your students, is the capitalist/Marxist implications it carries. (I apologize for this seemingly random connection; I've kind of been a Marxist soapbox today, but stay with me!) For example in Marx's "Economic and Philosophic Manuscript" (I think), he discusses how the capitalist-based work system has ultimately ruined man's relationship with nature, his loved ones, and himself--just to name a few. When Marx penned these ideas, he obviously didn't have the ability to incorporate the presence of digital technology, as it didn't exist, but his broad approach makes it applicable even in this conversation. I'm curious, in your classroom, do you plan on utilizing traditional humanities-based philosophies and methods to better situate the discussion you're having within the realm of humanities? Again, my apologies about the tangent--it will make better sense tomorrow, I hope.
Lacy