Lauren's Final Draft of Paper 3 Yes the FINAL of 1,2,3
From Mizzou Wiki
Technology Usage in a College Classroom: Double-Edged
Imagine that you woke up every morning at 8:30, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks to go sit in math class for college. What would you do during class? Would you write notes and listen intently to the teacher or would you browse around on the web checking your e-mails, and looking at your recently added friends page on Facebook.com for the majority of the class period? Michael Wesch from Kansas State University posted a video on YouTube.com that has roughly 2.5 million views so far. This is a very controversial video about the use of technology in the modern college classroom. Two hundred students hold up signs in a classroom that give short phrases describing what student life is like for them. Students in college today are very different than students were twenty years ago. Technology has changed so much within the world. The largest difference between the students in the past and the students now is the amount of technological advances students today have to work with. It is almost impossible to truly imagine a life in the modern world without technology. At the University of Missouri technology is used in many classrooms. Students have access to technology all over campus. There are issues with technology usage at the University of Missouri just as the Kansas State University. Technology has both good effects and bad effects on student life. The advancement of technology has changed how students are able to become culturally literate and culturally competent. The results of that change are double-edged and the way students discipline themselves to use the technology they have is a way that they can become more culturally literate and more culturally competent.
Wesch’s video is about modern students and how they are distracted by technology in class. In Wesch’s video there were many aspects about student life that were left out. Books, debt, learning, studying, walking, parking, and dorm life are all contributors to student life that Wesch did not mention in his video. The problem that Wesch is trying to address, in my opinion, is how technology in the classroom is being used and how it is not being used properly. If there are computers in a classroom, it is largely up to the student sitting in front of the screen how they are going to use it during class. The student could use it for further research on the topic being studied in class or they can browse the web for whatever they want. Students these days know how to multitask and that is how students today are able to surf the web while listening to the teacher. My generation and the generations after mine have grown up learning to multitask. Everything we do is multitasking. Our brains have been trained and are capable of taking in a lot of information at one time. The question is without the computer in class, would the student be able to focus better on the teacher or would the student doodle with the pen and paper they have and still be distracted? The ability to focus on the material being taught lies within the student. The computer could be used for additional web surfing to further the research from a different source for additional information about what the student is learning in class that day. It is ultimately the student's decision to discipline him or herself to use the technology provided wisely.
There are elements of the video that I also observe in my classes. In Math 110, the girl sitting to the left of me every morning looks at her Facebook page for almost the whole class period. Facebook.com is an online social network developed for university students. The site has now branched off into a much larger worldwide communicating network. An issue that Wesch’s video highlights is that students bring their laptops to class and don’t work on class work. Instead of working on classwork, they browse around on the internet. When I see the girl next to me in math class looking at her Facebook page, I get distracted. When I am writing notes and she is clicking away on her mouse, I look over impulsively. It draws my attention away from the teacher. Even for just that brief moment I could miss something that is vital to the lesson. Cell phones are also a hindrance in class. Text messages are a fairly new obsession with students today.Before cell phones, you had to wait to see someone or talk to someone on the phone before you could tell anyone anything. Now all you have to do is write a simple message on your cell phone and it should be received within minutes to the person it was sent to. “Facebooking” during class and/or texting during class are examples of technology that are barriers to the cultural literacy and the cultural competency of the student in the classroom. They are distractions that can take away from the lesson being taught in class.
Videos, animation, network, and photos are all things you find on the internet. The internet has created a whole new way people learn and the availability of information. As long as there is an active internet connection there is endless information at your fingertips. If you are sick, you can check your symptoms on WebMD with their handy symptom checker. Twenty years ago there were just books and encyclopedias. Now we have Wikipedia! You can find anything you need to know on the internet. On the computer you can have multiple programs like iTunes, solitaire, and an internet browser open at the same time. Additionally, you can have multiple pages open on your internet browser. That is a lot going on at once! However, that is how today’s generations are growing up. Students today are accustomed to that media and they can keep up with it. With the traditional learning style, like Wesch brings up in his video, “writing on the chalkboard (what’smissing: videos, photos, animation, network) forces the teacher to move” the student may feel bored or like they aren’t following what the teacher is saying because it is too slow paced. Students today are equipped to work through doing. In the video, Wesch brings up the very good point of “how can a student learn if they are just following along. Students have to learn by doing.” So, while people can argue that technology is hurting the student’s ability to focus in class, it should also be argued that technology in the classroom could be a good thing. If class is being canceled for example, the teacher can e-mail all the students at once and address it quickly, easily and informatively. The difficulty is when students use the technology for things that won’t better their education and make them more culturally literate and culturally competent. Rhetorical techniques can help strengthen this argument.
In Michael Wesch's video, he uses certain rhetorical techniques to persuade his audience of some of his ideas that he wishes to be seen by others. He has students in a class hold up signs to tell about their lives as students. This is rhetorical because it relates to students who watch the video. If a student watching the video is also in a class where their neighbor pays for the class but never comes they can relate to that so that student might feel more inclined to feel stronger about the video. The student might also see more through Wesch's eyes because they feel they relate to the video. There are three rhetorical appeals that can help persuade an audience. There is ethos, pathos, and logos. Wesch shows all three of these in his video. Ethos relates to the appeal of one’s character. Pathos is the appeal to the emotions. Lastly, logos are the appeal of information such as statistics and data.
Wesch uses all three rhetorical appeals to provoke thought in his audience. He uses pathos with the cinematography, if you will, in movie editing terms. The video uses “shaky-cam”. The video has a very personal feel. He targets emotion by just making this video and having viewers watch it. It stems deep thought on the education system and technology. When I watch this video I feel like students are not acting the way they should in college. Not all students are browsing around on the internet during class but it seems like even the students who are not doing that do not take college as seriously as they should. The music in the film, if it were mood invoking, would support the pathos argument as well but it is pretty unemotional so we will not add that to the pathos category. There is also the appeal of logos. Wesch uses logos in his video by showing the statistics of the students. Different students hold up signs that give different data about what their college life is like. They calculated that with everything they do in a day, their day would need to be 26.5 hours long. Wesch has students share many statistics in his video to try to persuade his audience to think more deeply about the education system and about how students are acting in college. Lastly for ethos, an example is that students created the video. This targets any student who watches the video to have a personal connection with the video. The student may not agree with Wesch but they still have that common bond with the other students in the video. All of these rhetorical techniques help push Wesch’s point of view. Other Rhetorical techniques can be used to push the arguments in this paper and Wesch’s video.
If you look at Toulmin's Rhetorical Model you can see how the video can be presented with a strong argument. Steven Toulmin became famous for his moral reasoning and his rhetorical analysis. He created a system that consisted of six components of argumentation that are all interrelated. The diagram is used to support and analyze an argument. The argumentative model focuses on the logistics of the argument and not just the argument as a theory. The model differs from a theoretical argument because Toulmin first finds the claim of the argument and supports the claim. A theoretical argument finds support and then finds the claim. Toulmin's model supports an argument very well because you have a solid claim and solid support. The six components of Toulmin’s model argument are first the claim, grounds or data, warrant, backing, qualifier, and finally the rebuttal. All of these are interrelated to support an argument.
Toulmin's model can be applied to the video and to the argument I am making in this paper. The claim is that technology in the college classroom is both good and bad and how it is the student's responsibility to use the technology wisely. The data or grounds that support this claim would be double-edged. Evidence from the video that supports how technology is bad is where a girl holds up her sign that says, "I bring my laptop to class but don't work on class stuff." Evidence from the video that supports how technology is good is at the end of the video where Wesch writes on the chalkboard and he is saying that "writing on the chalkboard encourages the teacher to move" but it also has a box saying, "what's missing: animation, network, photos, videos". All of these things come from technology and also help expand the mind. The warrant would be how technology is useful in class but it must be used properly. The backing would be additional support after the warrant by saying that if the technology in class is used properly students can do much more research about the topics being taught in class to become more culturally literate and more culturally competent. The qualifier is how most people will become more culturally literate and culturally competent if they use technology wisely to expand their minds. And lastly the rebuttal is that technology in the classroom is a good thing unless it is used poorly. Toulmin's model, as it can be seen, helps to show support in the argument. People are more likely to believe an argument if it has strong support.
Toulmin's model helps to support how technology is both good and bad in the classroom. The model helps you to see that if the student is using the technology wisely then the student has more power to become more culturally literate and more culturally competent. Technology has brought a whole new meaning to cultural literacy and cultural competency. To me those terms mean for example, that you are able to go to California when you don’t reside there and you can hold a conversation with someone you don’t know. You can talk with them and they can respond. You could talk about things you know about in your culture because you both know about your culture. You are literate and you are competent in your culture. The internet has changed these terms. You can talk with someone not only about routine things but also you can talk about the latest thing you read on the internet for example. The internet allows you to become more culturally literate and culturally competent. If you and the person you met in California were having a debate about something you could resolve the debate with factual information by searching on the internet to find an answer relating to what you are debating about. The internet is everywhere and it allows you to have information at your fingertips. If the teacher in class was only writing up on the chalkboard and the student was only following along, information is limited. With technology and the availability of information it allows the student to have more information readily available to them. This new form of interactive internet is called Web 2.0. Michael Wesch also sees this form of learning to be beneficial.
A second video produced by Michael Wesch is called "Information R/Evolution". This is another thought provoking video. When I watched this video for the first time I was awestruck. This video contains so much information about how the internet is changing society as individuals and society as a whole. The title of the video is explaining the revolution of technology and the evolution of technology. This video differs from Wesch's first video because it focuses solely on the new internet, Web 2.0. Wesch's first video focused on technology in the classroom. If we are talking about cultural literacy and cultural competency, by watching the second video it is clear that the internet is making society much stronger in both areas. "Information R/Evolution" talks about how the internet is full of categories. There is no bookshelf on the internet. In the past there were bookshelves and it took experts to find things on shelves and in a filing system. Now, with the internet, we are the experts. The internet makes an individual think in a whole new way. When performing a search online there has to be prior knowledge about what the search will be and there must be prior knowledge on how to search for it. The internet has links. If you click on a page, that page can lead you to another page. The information doesn't end. There are always new links to click on. Every new page that gets clicked on will expand the mind in some way. There are new headlines to read, or a new picture of something that stuns you. The internet is ever changing. In a college classroom, if there is technology available there is endless information available and if it is used properly it could benefit you greatly. New technology in a classroom could create a new way for students at the University of Missouri to focus better in class.
Group discussions and student presentations are a way to get students to be more involved in class. In a large lecture class it would take weeks to get all the students to show their presentations. Also in a lecture class it is very difficult to monitor the student's comprehension of the topics being studied and assigned. Something needs to be done about this. Students are not focusing in class and they are not getting the education they are paying for. Maybe new technology in large lecture classrooms is the answer. A document written by Arthur H. Woods and Charles Chiu describes a new type of technology that has seemed to work in the lecture classes at the University of Texas at Austin. This new device is called the Classroom Performance System, CPS for short. At the University of Texas the students are required to buy a wireless response pad. This system allows the teacher to ask a question to the whole class and the student's responses are charted on a histogram and displayed on a large screen in front of the class. Arthur says, "the system was less expensive, easier to install, and more robust than comparable hard-wired response systems" (Wireless). He also states that this system gave teachers a better feel of how the students comprehended the information. If the majority of the students didn’t understand the material it would show up on the histogram. All the answers would be varied and wouldn't make sense. This form of technology could be a good way for students to become more involved in class discussions, and relate with other students. My older sister has attended the University of Missouri in Columbia for three years. She is in a class that uses the CPS. Her opinion about the system was bittersweet. She felt that the system had the class more tuned in. Additionally, she likes how the teacher does not answer the questions and the students do. She felt that the system worked for helping students participate in class when the questions were asked but the system still didn't help with giving full attention to the teacher for longer periods of time. I am still not convinced that this form of technology would solve the issue of the student focusing in class. I think students would still be bored in lecture class.
If this system was installed at the University of Missouri in Columbia I think this would be putting a band-aid on the issue at hand. The issue still lies between the student and the teacher. There is a distinct relationship between students and teachers that creates motivation for both to be interested in the class. This is what is missing. Teachers, the IT department, and the Psychology department need to find what it takes for a student to feel stimulated in class. All the technologies in the world could be provided to a student but the student could still have trouble focusing in class if they are not stimulated. Ideas need to be taken from going back in time to how elementary students learn. College students are the same as elementary students only more advanced. The stimulation for elementary kids to push them to learn is to take them outside and have them do math problems with M&Ms. So, what is it that college students need? Maybe smaller classrooms are a good idea. I know smaller classes help me. Large lecture classes take away individualism. You become a number in a class and you are responsible for everything. There is nothing wrong with responsibility, it is a good thing, but it is way harder to take on those responsibilities when you feel unimportant. The motivation is lost for a student when the student feels like the teacher isn't motivated to teach. All throughout my schooling I can remember all the teachers I liked most. The reasons I liked those teachers more is because they were involved in their subject. They made class fun. My chemistry teacher in my junior year of high school blew things up every week. This kept all the students involved. If a student feels good from their teacher, they are much more likely to enjoy learning and participate in class. There is definitely a misunderstanding in what a student needs in order to focus and participate in class. Stress and the constant feeling of needing to think and move quickly to multitask get in the way big time.
At Piedmont Avenue Elementary in Oakland, California a new lesson is being taught for calming down, focusing, and looking for the answer. The term the students are being taught is "mindfulness". This technique is similar to meditation. It helps to take away stress. The author of this article titled, “In the Classroom, A New Focus On Quieting the Mind”, says, "Mindfulness, while common in hospitals, corporations, professional sports and even prisons, is relatively new in the education of squirming children." Researchers are looking into teaching young kids how to focus on their breath and on a single object so they can clear their minds and be ready to learn. “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention,” said Philippe R. Goldin, a researcher. “But we never teach them how.” This is said exactly as I want it said for this paper. Another great saying in this article is, “If we can help children slow down and think,” Dr. Haick said, “they have the answers within themselves.” In the world today people just need to slow down and think. In my math class this summer I have to work so fast that I have no time to fully retain the information I am taking in. One more quote that I cannot leave out is, "Dr. Saltzman, co-director of the mindfulness study at Stanford, said the initial findings showed increased control of attention and “less negative internal chatter — what one girl described as ‘the gossip inside my head: I’m stupid, I’m fat or I’m going to fail math,’ ” Dr. Saltzman said." This shows that if a student can control their attention they will feel so much better about everything they are dealing with that they must pay attention to. The negativity will be much less. If a student is having a hard time in a class they are much more likely to give up and say they are just going to fail the next exam instead of focusing their energy into working harder in a positive way for the class. This mindfulness technique is a very innovative idea that has nothing to do with technology. This idea seems to be working for the young students at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School. At the University of Missouri this technique is being used as well and seems to be working as well. College students are those elementary students just about 10 years later. The brain doesn't deteriorate as a child grows up, the brain grows. By this, you would think these techniques should work for a college student as well. This innovative idea is much cheaper to try too.
Many tests would have to be done and many students would have to be evaluated in order to see which form of learning would better the student’s ability to focus in class. The CPS might work better, or the mindfulness might work better. There is no way to know without doing a lot of testing. And even then, who is to say those results are accurate? Maybe the CPS could work for some students. Maybe the mindfulness would work for others. It is so hard to please all students at one time. Every body is different. Every learning style is different. A big part for the student is to find what works for them. In my English 1000 class, the girl next to me always comments on how I start writing my papers. She says that I am doing a lot of work that is unnecessary. I start writing out all my thoughts and reading articles and writing down all the important facts and quotes from those articles. She says, "Why don't you just print out the article and highlight?" This is just not what I do. I know that might be faster and easier, but writing everything out the way I do, allows me to become more familiar with what I am writing about. I like the way I do this and I don't think this will ever change. The learning style that works for me is learning by seeing and doing. This is very common among students. A website I found written by Randall Shirley titled, “Which One Are You?” focuses on three main types of learning styles. The three that Shirley focuses on are listening learners, seeing learners, and experience learners. I do not learn well by just listening and following along. At the University of Missouri and most other colleges lecture classes are just following along with the teacher and writing notes. This is good, but it is limited and it does not allow the student to practice or use what they are learning. A student has to know things about the way they learn best. In class I do not sit and look at a Facebook page because if I did I would lose all track of what I am learning in class. I do understand that my "intro into college" is different than what I will be experiencing in the fall when I take a full load of regular classes, yes including the big lecture class.
I am experiencing differences from what the video described in my current situation for college. Summer enrollment is different than a full load of classes that start in the fall, especially if they are your first college courses ever. My college experience so far has been different than the college life I see in the video for the most part. A girl in the video holds up a sign that says her average class size is 115. I haven’t been exposed to a class size of over 25 yet. Another major difference is that the program I am enrolled in is an 8-week program. The pace is much faster and I am required to stay on top of my class work and homework or I will get too far behind in just a matter of days. The video describes the typical student who has been enrolled in a full load of college courses and the student who sits in a regular lecture class. The biggest part of the video that does not relate to me is how the technology that I am allowed to use in class does not affect my ability to focus in class. I discipline myself to stay focused in class. In both of my courses this summer the classrooms are fully loaded with computers at each seat. This does not hurt me. I do not sit in class and look at a Facebook page.
Seeing the two videos produced by Michael Wesch opened my eyes to both the uses and abuses of the technology provided in class. If I needed or wanted to I would use the computer to search the internet for more information about the material the teacher is teaching me. College is very important to me and I am not going to jeopardize that by looking at things on the internet that I can look at when I get out of class. I will use the technology in class to become more culturally literate and more culturally competent so I can become a better student. I will use technology outside of class to expand my mind by looking up things on the internet that are not pertinent to my academics and I will also use technology in class to look up things on the internet that are pertinent to my academics so that I can become more knowledgeable about the things that I am learning in college. This is how I can become well rounded and become more culturally literate and culturally competent. I understand the way I learn. I believe that I already practice some of the techniques described in the mindfulness technique. Stress plays a huge roll in my life and in my ability to focus. When I do not take the time to slow down and breathe, I will never find the answer I am looking for regardless of it is schoolwork or not. For me, I do not think the CPS system would help. Maybe it would for a week or two, but I would get sick of it and try to find a way to get around it. For now, at the University of Missouri in Columbia I have to deal with what I have and use what I know will help me focus and learn. For me, that is constantly keeping my mind on schoolwork. The moment I let my guard down, I lose track of what I am learning and I forget how important my education is. The University of Missouri uses the mindfulness technique and the CPS. If I am enrolled in a class in the fall that uses the CPS, I will do my best to allow it to help me focus in class. Also, if I am in a class that will practice the mindfulness technique I will use this to help me in all my classes. The University of Missouri is well equipped to help students in anyway possible. I was surprised to see that the University of Missouri used both the CPS and the mindfulness technique. Even though these two tools for learning may not “cure” the “sickness” of students not being able to focus in class they will both help until there is a “cure”.
Works Cited
Brown, Patricia Leigh. "In the Classroom, A New Focus On Quieting the Mind". The New York Times. 16 June, 2007. 23 July, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16mindful.html
Shirley, Randall. "Which One Are You?". World Wide Learning. 2005. 31 July, 2008. http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/how-do-you-learn.htm
Woods, Arthur H., Chiu, Charles. "Wireless Response Technology in College Classrooms". 23 July, 2008. http://www.mhhe.com/cps/docs/CPSWP_woodschiu.pdf
Wesch, Michael. "A Vision of Students Today." Youtube. 12 Oct. 2007. Kansas State University. 25 July 2008 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o>.
Wesch, Michael. "Information R/Evolution." Youtube. 12 Oct. 2007. Kansas State University. 25 July 2008 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM>.
