I don’t think many people in history can say they witnessed a total cultural change in one lifetime like we have with the ICT revolution. It has become a “dominant and pervasive part of modern life” as stated in the Linked World. For me, I have found that I am so used to being online with my smart phone. When I do not have my phone, I feel like I am missing something. However, I have an inkling that the people who witnessed the cultural change brought about by the Gutenberg revolution probably experienced some of the elation and fear we have with the ICT revolution. For example, I admit that I get easily easily swept away in my excitement for the newest app, but then I also become overly protective about my online presence when I hear about the lastest misuse of the Twitter splashed all over the internet. Like with anything in life, I have found it important to find balance between these two extremes.
Especially with my school library blog, I feel the need to find a balance. As indicated by the Canada Census 2010:
- in 2010, 8 out of 10 Canadian households (79%) had access to the Internet. Over one-half of connected households used more than one type of device to go online
Therefore, even though I have not personally had contact with my new school’s community, I know then most of them have some knowledge about the internet. However, since they do not have many ICT devices in their school, they might not have seen ICT resources in an educational setting. With this understanding, I think I have to make the vision for the school library blog clear so that they understand how ICT fits into the school setting. As we have discussed in class, it can easily become all about the technology and less about the theory about how we use the technology. Furthermore, I think I will build up my blog slowly so that I can evaluate how the school community is reacting to this new form of communication. Since taking this course, I feel so inspired to include so many ideas on to my blog. However, in my vision to promote literacy in the school, an open ended question, like “What is Your Favourite Book?” could be a question that anyone in the school community will be able to answer. From my principal, I also learned that many parents and students like to visit the library before and after school, this will be a good time to interact with them and share my blog. Like my understanding of ICT through this course, I think my blog will evolve with me as I learn to become a teacher-librarian in the 21st century.
I wholeheartedly agree with you Shirla that the internet and mobile phone technology has revolutionized our world, and changed it in ways we may not even realize yet. Last summer I studies a technology institute that explored ICT’s impact on our humanity. It was astounding when we consider our changes in relationships, information access, public self, intimacy levels, sleep patterns, and more. That apprehension you mentioned when separated from your phone is called “biopower” if I remember correctly, and it means that our ways of being on a daily basis are so inextricably meshed with technology that we often feel less whole without access to it.
I also learnt that adolescents and teenagers spend an average of 7 hours a day in front of a screen (T.V., computer, smart phone, video games, etc.), but that because of multi-tasking and multiple devices used at once the total average time per day is 11.5 hours. That’s shocking, and frighteningly significant. That’s why I applaud your focus on enjoyment in reading. With these changing ways of being and encroaching technology it becomes even more essential to instill deeper skills, like reading for enjoyment and imagination, instead of superficial skimming (reading and thinking) practices that normally dominate web reading/searching.
Although we have been undergoing rapid technological change since the mid 1980s, there has been very little substantive discussion or leadership about how we balance our lives with digital technologies. We have never had the kinds of connective affordances before, in all of human history. The magnitude of change, as cognitive, cultural, and technological dimensions of human existence, are not discussed in any substantive way. For the most part, the discussion tends to focus on a fearful, ‘technology is bad’ discourse. However, we depend on technological phenomena for our existence. We must engage with what it means to our evolving human society. I argue teachers need to lead the way, even though they are the most resistant professional group to adopt digital technologies. Perhaps because of that, we will have the needed conversations about what it means, how we are going to decide to live with it, and what kinds of learning societies and institutions we want to create.