I started reading Little Brother and I noticed a whole bunch of different kind of technologies. The students all had their own laptops provided by the school. There were metal detectors at the front doors. There are cameras all over the school that used to have face recognition software but now they have gait recognition software. I have never heard of gait recognition software before, maybe it is made up and maybe it is real, I don't know, but I think it's cool. The library books even have tags in them so the librarians can track exactly where each and every library book is. There is even more technology when the kids in the book get picked up by Homeland Security when there is a terrorist attack. I started thinking about all the technology in the book when I started reading The Socially Networked Classroom. Dr. Kist talks about different ways to incorporate technology into the classrooms. I like the idea of every student having a laptop. In Little Brother the laptops provided by the school have programs on them that restrict the websites and programs the students can run. I think that is a good idea because students only need to work on school things while they are at school. I think it is important for all students to have access to different kinds of technology. I think if students learn to use different kinds of technology in school they will be better prepared for life after school. I hope to teach my students how to use different types of technology in my classroom.
In Chapter 2 of The Socially Networked Classroom Dr. Kist talks about the Multigenre Autobiography assignment that we also have to do for this class. I think it will be easy to find images from movies, books, and TV from when I was growing up. I am very excited about working on my autobiography. I have searched for any images yet but I have a lot of thoughts going through my head about all the things I grew up with.
I think you brought up a really important point. The book does show examples of the different types of technology used in schools. While, I think it's important for different types of technology to be incorporated in schools, I also think Doctorow is trying to send us a message about privacy issues concerning technology. I think schools need to be aware of their students rights in regards to their privacy in order to insure that things don't get out of hand in the way they did in the book.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be nice if all students had a laptop. I know that I personally would find it both a "blessing" and a "curse" if I was offered a computer in school. I say blessing because without being able to go on facebook or anything I would have an easier time taking notes on a computer in class. When I do bring my laptop to class, I find that Facebook and my Kent e-mail are perpetually running on a tab in the background. Even now as I am typing this, I have (let me count) a staggering 14 tabs up in the background, 4 Firefox windows open, Skype, a word document, and a picture up. (Now I am slightly ashamed at how much stuff is actually open!) It would also be a "curse" (though in the loosest terms) because I have a compulsion to multitask. Though in the long run it would be great to break my technology multitasking by using a computer that was limited, at the beginning I would most likely go through a technology withdrawal.
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