This inspiring short is a beautifully rendered reminder that social media engagement is actually disengagement from life in real time.
"Social" media at it’s finest!
As time has progressed, technologies continue to evolve, taking old ideas and basis to new levels and renovations. It is with these new ideas and creations that we must learn to reinvent our thoughts and process of imagination to integrate them into our daily lives. It is most important, however, to ensure that engulfing a child in the world of technologies begins at a young age so that child can then use such technologies to their complete advantage in their future. These new technologies offer a variety of subjects, content and mediums in which to work with for students. Giving a student the opportunity to choose a medium in which they can express themselves, and lend personal testimony, is the most important aspect that Digital Humanities has to offer the students of the future.
Being given the opportunity to use a digital platform to create both my midterm as well as my final projects for an English class was an opportunity I have never had in the past. I was able to use my own personal work and experiences and incorporate them into my projects. By doing such, I then created a bridge between myself, my classmates and my professor, welcoming them into my personal life by sharing experiences such as my personal photography as well as have a back fusion surgery six years ago. These personal experiences are important pieces to who I am as an individual and have helped me become who I am today. So many “traditional” classrooms do not allow for this link between personal life and classroom life and that is where the problem lies. If professors allowed for students to incorporate personal experiences via a digital base or platform, then students would be more interested and have more of a drive to fulfill the assignment requirements with a passion and a drive.
For my final project, I used “telescopictext.org”. In the most basic ways of explaining, it’s a website which allows for its users (me) to write a story… with a twist. The user can write out one sentence, then with a click, select one word in the sentence to then add more to that sentence, or a separate sentence entirely. The final product is a story, but in order to get the whole story unfolded, you must click on different words which unfold another line or part of the story. Over all, the actual final product doesn’t seem like it was too difficult to get there, however, don’t let that fool you because it took me a total of three or four tries to make it perfect. And by perfect, I mean it can still have a little work added to it. Here is the link to my final project: Nicole’s Project
As I worked on my project, I truly realized how important it is for a teacher to begin to change their teaching ways and transform their classroom into a technology savvy place. The benefits of having students do creative pieces using a technological medium are endless. From the originality that comes from it, you will not have to worry so much about fabricated and work that is not theirs. By incorporating a personal aspect and testimony and allowing students to choose their topics, allows for an endless possibility of what you may be viewing. As Carolyn Fox explains in her online article, “Digital Technology and Creativity in the Classroom Prepares Kids for the Future”, “Many teachers know that it is important to be able to give students and parents more choice in learning models and with digital technology, given that one size does not fit all and that a more personalized learning experience is needed.” By giving more opportunity and platforms a student can work with, teachers are then helping roll out the road to success for many other students who can begin to use their stronger fields and areas of study to their full advantage.
Often professors and teachers may argue that technology may work as a distraction in the classroom. And yes, this may be true in some cases. However, if technology was not such a taboo in the classroom, then perhaps this distraction may be nonexistent. By using technology to its full potential, teachers can incorporate lectures, notes, polls, videos, and all other content online, to create an interactive experience. An experience where students won’t have the time to get distracted doing other things, rather the entire 60-90 minute lecture period is used minute to minute with classroom instruction and interaction via technology. In Toni Fuhrman’s article focusing on technology in the classroom and using it as a learning tool rather than a distraction, Fuhrman focus’ on one professor specifically, Ron Yaros of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and explains that, “Yaros often quizzes students to make sure they pay attention to the mobile content. “Students have to stay engaged in order to pass the quiz,” Yaros said.” Perhaps this is one form that professors can take to ensure their students are engaged rather than just using the technology as a distraction. Another approach may be to have written reflections at the end of each class on how you learned from the assignment. The possibilities are endless and you are able to really explore beyond the classroom through using technology.
It is not entirely up to the professor to engage just the student into the technology in the classroom academia. There are many websites and MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) in which a student can get involved in. However, professors are also open to presenting these websites and MOOC into their classrooms to engage in a more digital humanity lifestyle of teaching. As discussed in the classroom, only a few of the hundreds of thousands of online outlets a student can engage in to do class projects or to heighten their understanding of a topic at hand. A website that offers as an aggregator to all of these other websites is: 21st Century School Teacher. This website offers links to a large variety of other websites which a student can use to learn and enjoy learning to a new level. Many of these sites offer the digital humanities to a new kind, allowing for students to become involved and engaged in what they are presenting to the class room. Take for example the online presenter “Prezi” that we are all so familiar with. This website takes the typical PowerPoint presentation and gives it a little spin (no pun intended). It allows for the student to make the presentation their own and add a little dazzle to their presentation. With this, every presentation and project becomes more engaging and interesting to the audience, and therefore the students will learn even more from project presentations.
It is no question that technology has slowly but surely taken over the daily lives of many students in the 21st-century. However, rather than banning it and making technology something taboo and bad, if we all learn to work with it an incorporate it into the classroom, we can use technology in its most effective ways. By uniting the digital world and the humanities, we can surely create a work where the arts engage into the “free culture” awareness of the world and will then promote for the education of all in regards to the arts. Technology in the classroom is something inevitable; it’s something that is happening at a quicker pace than anticipated as the technology of the world continues to evolve. As long as we learn to incorporate it correctly, and continue to have students engaged in the class material, technology and digitalization of education can soon be the next biggest and best aspect in education.
After many trials and errors, I am pleased to present my final project: http://www.telescopictext.org/text/YK7tzqqGtRQ6U
I am still finishing up my analytical component to my project, and that will be posted at a later date. Feed back and opinions on my Telescopictext will be greatly appreciated! Please let me know what you think!!
