I must admit that I often feel like the answer to the question above is a resounding "NO!" At times it seems like our departments or colleges come up with these really "good" ideas on how to utilize technology in the classroom, but they are rarely thought through completely and result in thousands of $$s spent in software and hardware which half the time won't even work together. Those are the times that I get really discouraged with "how" technology is implemented in education.
Needless to say I was pretty excited to see a copy of Richard J. Selfe's text, Sustainable Computer Environments: Cultures of Support in English Studies and Language Arts, laying around at DMAC. I realized I was going to need something to blog about for the rest of my time at DMAC and this seemed like the perfect text to pick up. So tonight, I read the "Preface" for the text and have a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, computer environments are sustainable if you can get enough people on board and excited about doing so. As Selfe points out, "given the challenges that computer-supported instructional efforts face, it is clear that sustainable practices (not short-term solutions) are essential to the successful integration of technologies into English, language arts, and literacy instruction" (xi).
Selfe discusses the trials and tribulations that come with using technology in the classroom. To do so effectively requires that instructors are diligent about their own professional development and it requires constant learning, practicing, and experimenting (x). It also requires support from our departments and administration. Selfe uses a term or a phrase that I find interesting. He states that the purpose of this book is "to give interested English and language arts teachers, administrators, students, and technicians, a sense of agency--to encourage them to become technological activists who are willing to productively influence and shape the technological systems around them" (xiii). "Agency" and "activists"--those are two words that I can buy into. Rather than just being a consumer of technology, perhaps if I and others became activists, we could help shape and make decisions effecting how technology is actually used in out institutions. It will be interesting to see where this book takes me.
Needless to say I was pretty excited to see a copy of Richard J. Selfe's text, Sustainable Computer Environments: Cultures of Support in English Studies and Language Arts, laying around at DMAC. I realized I was going to need something to blog about for the rest of my time at DMAC and this seemed like the perfect text to pick up. So tonight, I read the "Preface" for the text and have a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, computer environments are sustainable if you can get enough people on board and excited about doing so. As Selfe points out, "given the challenges that computer-supported instructional efforts face, it is clear that sustainable practices (not short-term solutions) are essential to the successful integration of technologies into English, language arts, and literacy instruction" (xi).
Selfe discusses the trials and tribulations that come with using technology in the classroom. To do so effectively requires that instructors are diligent about their own professional development and it requires constant learning, practicing, and experimenting (x). It also requires support from our departments and administration. Selfe uses a term or a phrase that I find interesting. He states that the purpose of this book is "to give interested English and language arts teachers, administrators, students, and technicians, a sense of agency--to encourage them to become technological activists who are willing to productively influence and shape the technological systems around them" (xiii). "Agency" and "activists"--those are two words that I can buy into. Rather than just being a consumer of technology, perhaps if I and others became activists, we could help shape and make decisions effecting how technology is actually used in out institutions. It will be interesting to see where this book takes me.
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