Low Bridge Technology
12 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
In preparation for making our own YouTube video for the class we read Daniel Anderson’s “The Low Bridge to High Benefits: Entry-Level Multimedia, Literacies, and Motivation” and Alexandra Juhasz, “Why Not (To) Teach On YouTube.” The opposing positions taken by the authors identifies advantages and disadvantages to using videos on YouTube in a classroom setting.
Honestly, I felt that Juhasz’s concerns (lack of privacy, trollers leaving mean comments, willingness to use technology) are probably associated closer with a limited technology skills set. Many of the privacy and comment issues can be controlled by setting user privacy settings. This may be simplifying the issues a bit, as users should always exert caution. However, Juhasz sounds biased and limited in her application of technology.
Juhasz jumped into a “learn on the go experiment” in setting up a classroom on YouTube. She had a specific agenda that she wanted to cover and she wanted certain functions that are not provided by YouTube. Rather than alter her classroom objectives to maximize the capabilities of YouTube, she became frustrated that her needs were not met. To me that just sounds a bit odd. It’s like going to a pizza parlor and getting upset that they do not have tacos just because you want tacos. So let that be Rule #1: Do not use programs or technology for something it was not designed for and then become upset when it does not work to your specifications.
That then brings me to Rule #2: technology is your friends. Aside from crashed hard drives and corrupted files, technology is extremely supportive and fun. Rather than jumping all the way in and using every technology available it is best to warm up to the integration of technology into curriculum. Have students analyze lyrics can be done “words in a row” style or it can be composed into a multimedia production.
The complexity and scale of production is at the discretion of the teacher. Using entry/mass market software with easy user interfaces provides an easy way to introduce multimedia composition. Some critics say that technology provides too many variables that hinder the integrity of the classroom environment. I believe that to be true if you do not know how to effectively manage the technology/software (in which case you should not be teaching it to begin with, but that is a different topic for a different day).
However, if you do know how to effectively apply the software in a fashion that supplements learning then I feel that it is imperative to integrate that technology into the classroom. Accessing various formats of technology helps build stronger electronic and computer literacy skills. I could go on and on about how important these skill sets are, but let’s be honest: it is safe to say that the next generation of adults will have to be as comfortable operating a computer as we are using a telephone.
Gone are the days of only using a computer to check email. Get over it! (just teasing…but really you should)
