RIP Novel?

I have to admit I was somewhat frustrated by this week's readings.  First off, because I feel like this is all old news.  I realize that technology should by all means be incorporated into the classroom if it's going to enhance what you would be doing in the first place.  However, now that I finally have something to base my argument off of (unlike last semester, minus the epic technology failure I call "Intersession 2009"), I've found that just trying to use technology can actually have a negative affect on student learning, because students just don't have access to it in school.  It seems to me that these articles are moving much faster than the public school's ability to get these various modes of technology in the classroom, let alone the computer labs.  And believe me, I'm definitely starting to feel the pressure from this program and (unintentionally) from my fellow chorters to get some sort of blog or wiki set up in my student teaching classroom.  But realistically, right now I'm just worried about giving my students access to a 400-pound, 1-mph dinosaur computer from the 90's that would be lucky to have Windows 98 installed on it.  I guess iMovies and Photo Story 3 will have to wait until next year.  The point is, I am in complete support of using technology if it can actually perform a task better than a paper and pencil could.  But I've also seen my cooperating teacher's frustrations with trying to use blogs/wikis in their own class (due to a combination of accountability, assessment, access, forced discussion issues, differentiating different sections of the same class,  TIME, etc.)  But I do realize this is the reality of the 21st century classroom.  So I guess until my school is up-to-date with some of the more technologically advanced suburbs, I will continue to be frustrated.  So without ranting, a few thoughts.  Ahem... 

1.  Purpose?  I can see huge benefits to using blogs to stimulate discussion (Exhibit A right here).  Wikis, too.  But what skills am I trying to teach my students?  Is it being able to form an opinion, voice it, and back it up with supporting points from a text or life experience?  Or is it to get them to think it's okay to not speak up in class because they will just be typing their responses behind a computer screen like robots?  I personally find this particular blog useful, but I've already had 10+ years of secondary and post secondary and post post secondary education to learn to discuss in person.  If there's one thing I'm really taking away from my cooperating teacher, it's that she really stresses having a purpose for every single thing you do in the classroom, and then letting students be fully aware of that purpose.   But the simulation in games and the virtual L.A.R.P.-ing?  (Live Action Role Playing for those of you who aren't fortunate enough to actually live next door to a man who acts out Medieval battles in full costume like I am).  Will my students who seriously spent 20 minutes LAUGHING at the prison torture scene in Persepolis be able to take value out of what seems like "playing video games" in class?  Even if it is academic?  In conjunction with classroom discussion, I do think blogs can be very helpful for creating a social environment and a safe place for students to voice opinions and comments to a book.  But that brings me to my next point....

2.  Access?  I have HUGE issues with access to technology in the classroom.  I've been told that I need to make alternate assignments or provide lab time, but to me, that just isn't enough.  Unfortunately, my high school has roughly three computer labs for its 2,200 students (I say "roughly" because one is on wheels and completely unreliable, and the other one has recently been flooded by the chemistry lab above it and is no longer in commission.  yay!)  I can't even schedule TWO CONSECUTIVE lab days for them to type their final drafts of multigenre papers, let alone set aside weekly time to respond on blogs.  And because there is a such a sharp contrast in socioeconomic levels at the school, I think that something like requiring a weekly blog would only perpetuate that divide, academically.  Students who had access at home would be able to respond more in depth and more frequently, and students who could use the computers during lab or study hall would be limited to that one hour of access.  To me, providing alternative assignments (aka paper based discussions or what have you) would just be insulting to the students, not to mention unmotivating and boring.  So what am I supposed to do?  Ugh, the joys of teaching.... Which brings me to point three: 

3.  What about books?  What exactly are we teaching?  English, right?  I've grown up around technology too.  I had black and white AOL ver. 2.0 on my own APPLE computer circa 1995 (that was ELEMENTARY school.  What were my parents thinking??), but spent hours upon hours in chatrooms with my friends.  I had Napster, cell phones, google and AIM in highschool, and Facebook, iTunes, limewire, and YouTube for most of college.  But I'm still printing out every page of my assigned readings.  I still appreciate the feel of a brand new book.  And I still believe that students are capable of learning from things that aren't on a computer.  At least I really hope so.  I think we need to teach our students the value of actually reading a paper text, and being able to discuss our opinions of it, out loud, without the use of a backspace key.  Or students writing with actual pencils and paper.  Or being able to find their own mistakes in grammar and spelling without relying on spellcheck to point them out first.  And what about the role of the teacher?  What happens when my students can do things with technology I've never even heard of?  Then I become the student?  I suppose it's time to brace myself...

Again, I'm really not trying to rant about the downfalls of technology in the classroom.  I really believe that the right technology can do things to further student thinking that we never thought possible with paper and pens.  I think technology most definitely its place and can very much benefit students - if they have access to it.   But I do think it should be used as an aid, not a substitute, and by all means not a crutch to take the place of actual quality classroom instruction.  I think it's vitally important to teach skills first.  Technology later.  And by all means, not add fuel to the fire of our students' already too short/multi modal/multitasked/completely digitalized attention spans with "textoids" and the like.  Maybe it's time we taught the value of reading all of 50 pages of a novel at once.  Or, dare I say it, just focus on one medium at a time, like a book.  And most of all, challenge our students to think for themselves, reflect critically, and learn to appreciate the value of the printed word.  Because if they don't learn to do these things in English class, where will they? 

Electronic Text Center

Keeping with the latest trend.  Because apparently things need to be online these days.  And because actually, it is a great resource for finding American Literature online organized by author and genre.  Sweet.