Thinking about Technology

As I think about my syllabus and assignment, and using technology in the classroom, issues to consider:

1. Different people have different relationships with/experience of technology—this is an extension of the disparities between students in terms of their history and ability with, say, theory, or writing, or education. People with flickr accounts already, for example, have a massive head start when it comes to projects revolved around flickr. People who are new to applications and processes, however, may spend double or triple the time that others do learning to use them. How does this affect content and level of reading/writing required? To what degree does one grade according to the quality of the content versus the time spent engaging with the technology?

2. Privacy issues. On the one hand, you could argue that education and the modern world demand a new organizing of public and private. Certainly, youngsters seem to have a different relationship to these ideas. On the other hand, UM policy requires instructors to provide alternatives for those who do not wish to make their writing public. For an elective, one could simply require public participation. For a mandatory course, the ethics are different. Screen names may be one answer, passwords another. How to provide alternatives without undermining group learning/experience?

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