Ryan's response to Hayles 2/4

[Anonymous]

#388

“Conversely, when my computer goes down or my internet fails, I feel lost, disoriented, unable to work–in fact I feel as if my hands have been amputated…”  This line by Hayles rings true for me as well.  Try explaining that to my mother who barely knows what the internet is… Or a text message for that matter.

I find that I no longer make phone calls.  Just texts.  My mother and I try to stay in communication at least once a week or two tops.  But finding the time to make a call, or even a call to say, “I can’t talk right now” has become difficult.  I’m not in the “mind-set” to make a call anymore.  The amount of time or commitment a call takes up seems more like a luxury to me.  I tell my mother I’d be contact with her much more if she started texting.  Telling her, “you’ll hear from me more, see pictures and videos of things I do or am surrounded by if you started texting.”  She’s interested in hearing about them, but has not yet expressed the interest in acquiring the technology that is needed to be a part of them.  Slowly she is working her way into the digital era.  I’ll randomly get posts on my Facebook from her under her husband’s account–writing things like, “I like this picture, from your mother.” So back to Hayles’ line, I’d feel quite amputated from the world if not for my digital devices.  They are really the only ways in which I communicate now.  I soon hope to bring my mother on board.

Another mention from “How We Think”– “Students read and write print texts in the classrooms and consume and create digital texts of their own on screens.”  I currently teach 8th grade English Language Arts.  My co-teacher and I have a ‘paperless classroom.”  All the students work is communicated through computers.  I love that the students have this opportunity now as I feel it will be the norm soon for all classrooms.  The only disadvantage is that the students state required test is still hand written and read in print.  They may bomb entirely when it comes to having to write with pen and paper on “what they know.”  The connection is entirely different.  Yet, give them a computer and they can easily ‘text you” what they know.

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