[Air-L] digital literacy takes a field trip to a farm

[Sara J. Bocciardi Bassett]

I think that shocking students with a period of no media or no
technology can have its benefits, but I think that those who teach
also need to be aware of what  message(s) they are trying to send with
the exercise.  Is the goal mainly to show the level of media/tech use
is present in everyday life, or is it to change the media
consumption/tech use habits of the students?

I am in full support of the former and partial support of the latter.
Becoming aware of how much media and technology one experiences in a
day (or a week) can be a great learning experience. With regards to
changing student habits, I think educators need to be cautious about
the value judgment that can occur in such an exercise. There is hardly
an objective definition of "too much" media/tech, and thus one should
be wary of coming off as chiding students for becoming "too dependent"
on technology or "too consumed" with media/tech.

All of that having been said, the trip to StoneLake Farm (I was one of
the students who attended) was a great middle ground for learning how
much media and technology we use in our everyday lives, as well as a
lesson on how to decrease some of the unnecessary use. What David left
out was that some of the students did indeed check email and use cell
phones at the farm. Most of the use was tied directly to
responsibilities at home that needed to be attended to, but none of us
were outright banned from using the farm's internet cafe. Even the
head farmer himself listens to the radio daily and uses craigslist
when he needs to. Hell, he even has his own website!

What I left the farm with was a desire to use technology and media
effectively in my life, not to cut them out altogether. I still blog,
I still read message boards, I still have 50+ feeds in my RSS reader,
and I still carry my cell phone with me everywhere I go. But I have
cut down on some of the more pointless 'net surfing, and I make a
point to get out and be tech-free a little more than I used to. Not
because that is inherently better than surfing facebook, but because
it is better *for me*.

By the way, for the prof's who cut off all media use, including the
internet, I hope you warn the students or leave loopholes for
school-related research. I, for one, would not be able to do any
research without access to the internet, if only because our library
no longer has a physical card catalog, not to mention that a good
portion of our journals are online-only subscriptions.

-Sara

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 4:12 PM, Greg Wise <Greg.Wise at asu.edu> wrote:
> The main reason I've done it as a full week is then the assignment
>  begins to look at habits of media use across various rhythms of
>  different sorts of days they may have (days when they're mainly in
>  class, days when they're at work, weekends, and so on). And with a week
>  you can begin to address questions of habit and routine.
>
>  It is a lot to ask, but I think they find it interesting (and a
>  challenge).
>
>  Cheers,
>
>  greg
>
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
>  [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Mark D. Johns
>  Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:07 PM
>  To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>  Subject: Re: [Air-L] digital literacy takes a field trip to a farm
>
>  Greg Wise wrote:
>  > ...
>  > The first part of the assignment is for them to keep a diary of every
>  > encounter with the mass media throughout a week,...
>  > The second part was called the NO MEDIA WEEK....
>
>  You're a hard taskmaster, Greg. I've been doing a similar assignment in
>  my Intro to Mass Media course for quite a few years now, connected with
>  having the students read the first chapter of Bill McKibben's book, The
>  Age of Missing Information. But I only require them to log their media
>  use for three days, and then go just ONE DAY without any mass media at
>  all -- including books, magazines, newspapers, music, TV, radio, 'net,
>  etc. We have an 800 acre campus in a rural area, so it's not hard to
>  send them out into the woods. Most of them are going through iPod
>  withdrawal symptoms within a few hours. An essay is written and much
>  discussion ensues.
>  --
>  Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
>  Associate Professor and Head of the
>   Department of Communication Studies
>  Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA
>  http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
>  -----------------------------------------------
>  "Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
>      ---Mark Twain
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