[Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class

[Denise N. Rall]

Brabazon, T. 2002. Digital hemlock:  Internet
education and the poisoning of teaching. Sydney:
University of New South Wales Press.

Despite her polemical title Tara Brabazon had some
very cogent points about the nature of today's
classroom, the necessity for lectures (she plays loud
rock music as an 'opener') and "death by powerpoint."

Further, what I find with my students illustrates the
points made by many writing instructors - such as
Natalie Goldberg, "Writing down the Bones" - that
writing exercises muscles in the hand that promote
intelligent connections in the brain. I would argue
that this is even more necessary for handwriting vs.
keyboard but I find both modes very useful.

Hence the useful taking of notes vs. "highlighter
hypnosis" and everything pre-typed and pre-digested in
ppt. Likewise, memorization of facts and figures
exercises connectivity in the brain. Leaning on google
to provide all facts at the very moment they are
needed is not the same as the days when people
memorized large bits of verse and text (Homer, the
Vedas, etc.)

I've just noted how mathematicians and physicists need
to memorize a great deal of information to then build
up their analysis to another level. Three years of
Latin in high school helped me with learning other
languages, and memorizing speeches from Julius Ceasar
and Shakespeare I think helped my memory generally.

Just a few musings. Many digital advocates skim over
basic biological facts, including that people are
bipedal hominids.  For handwriting, that means old
behaviors are still useful for 'biologically
historical reasons' that don't necessarily match with
the goals of modern technology.

Cheers, Denise





Denise N. Rall, PhD
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA 
Tues: Room T2.17, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Mobile 0438 233 344 
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/
Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK
http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html


       
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