Making Connections with/to/in/for/by/thanks to -> Text Technologies
This has been a fascinating course in so many ways. I had never really thought about writing as a technology – or even the pen as a form of technology, but in fact, it is. I have really enjoyed being able to explore the historical aspect of text through reading Ong (2002) and Bolter’s (2001) take on the pivotal role text plays in technology. In reading and writing blog posts I felt challenged to reflect, act, and react! I have come to a better understanding of what technology really means. The U.S. DOE in 2003 stated that, “technology is now considered by most educators and parents to be an integral part of providing a high-quality education” (U.S. Department of Education). What exactly technology is, or what the school offers as “technology” is open for discussion!
According to O’Donnell and Engell (1999), the only sustainable technology currently is papyrus – and our students do need to know how to use it! But according to Ong (2002), writing and print and the computer are all ways of technologizing the world (p. 79). We need to facilitate good uses of all types of technology within our classrooms and teachers need to be willing to try and districts need to be available to offer that support.
I have found it really powerful to explore writing as a technology and to think of how it empowers our students as they develop an ability to use language in many ways. Bolter (2001) puts it well when he states that “the reflexive character of each technology permits writers to find themselves in the texts they create and therefore to know themselves in a new way” ( 82%).
We are so fortunate to be able to teach our students how to interact with all these technologies and to provide them opportunities to reflect on their choices! Bolter (2001) sums it up best when he states the following: “the reflexive character of writing is emphasized: we write both to express, to discover, and to share who we are, and in a postmodern age our written identity is, like hypertext, dynamic, flexible, and contingent” (82%). Where or what technology will be the next big educational tool, we won’t know, but what we do know is that we need to be able to communicate and our students need to learn how to do so in any platform, in order to be ready for some job not yet invented in a few years time! I see a writing adventure looming!
References
Bolter, J. D. (2000). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
U.S. Department of Education. (2003). Federal funding for educational technology and how it is used in the class- room: A summary of findings from the Integrated Studies of Educational Technology. Office of the Under Secre- tary, Policy and Program Studies Service: Washington, D.C. (Found within Ertmer, P (2005))