308jnighttheblog: January 2007
308jnighttheblog: January 2007
Being an English Education major, the first thing that stood out to me in Birkerts piece was the story he told about the professor who was selling all of his books. The reason this sparks some intersest in me is because I am currently battling the decision to teach and the professor made it sound like it was the most horrible experience of his life. I personally cannot imagine a world without books. I agree with Birkert when he says technology is taking over. Like him, I still think books are very important, but I don't think that technology is such a bad thing. They recently took the librarys out of the local elementary schools in my home town because they didn't have enough money to support it. However, they have quite a few computers in every classroom. This to me is just ridiculous.
I think that the upcoming and new technology that arises everyday is amazing. We can do so much more today than we ever could and that to me just shows a developing world. I can't see this phenomenon as a negative thing like Birkert does. We still have to be able to read when we access online information for the most part. There are some sites that will probably talk to you. The internet is a quick easy access for everything too. It is convenient for everyone. Maybe a lot of older people don't know how to use one. For those of us that do, we should consider ourselves priveledged.
The last thing I want to comment on is Birkert's first thought about what will happen with the rise of our electronic future. The first thing he says will happen is language erosion. I have to agree with his thought on this. Especially in the cases of young people like us. When we are chatting or texting even we find ourselves abbreviating even the smallest of words. u for you. bc for because. and there are so many more I can't think of right now. I usually see the negative effect of this coming when I am writing a paper. I always accidently abbreviate things that I shouldn't or leave out punctuation throughout the entire paper writing process. I have to agree with him when he says that our language skills may deteriorate due to the rise in the electronic world.
Being an English Education major, the first thing that stood out to me in Birkerts piece was the story he told about the professor who was selling all of his books. The reason this sparks some intersest in me is because I am currently battling the decision to teach and the professor made it sound like it was the most horrible experience of his life. I personally cannot imagine a world without books. I agree with Birkert when he says technology is taking over. Like him, I still think books are very important, but I don't think that technology is such a bad thing. They recently took the librarys out of the local elementary schools in my home town because they didn't have enough money to support it. However, they have quite a few computers in every classroom. This to me is just ridiculous.
I think that the upcoming and new technology that arises everyday is amazing. We can do so much more today than we ever could and that to me just shows a developing world. I can't see this phenomenon as a negative thing like Birkert does. We still have to be able to read when we access online information for the most part. There are some sites that will probably talk to you. The internet is a quick easy access for everything too. It is convenient for everyone. Maybe a lot of older people don't know how to use one. For those of us that do, we should consider ourselves priveledged.
The last thing I want to comment on is Birkert's first thought about what will happen with the rise of our electronic future. The first thing he says will happen is language erosion. I have to agree with his thought on this. Especially in the cases of young people like us. When we are chatting or texting even we find ourselves abbreviating even the smallest of words. u for you. bc for because. and there are so many more I can't think of right now. I usually see the negative effect of this coming when I am writing a paper. I always accidently abbreviate things that I shouldn't or leave out punctuation throughout the entire paper writing process. I have to agree with him when he says that our language skills may deteriorate due to the rise in the electronic world.
posted by Sarah at 4:56 PM
11 Comments:
Good post, I have to say that I have to same feelings about this artical and i am sure you being an english major found ti very interesting!
I agree with the part about how the english language is becoming abbreviated in cyberspace as well as in real life. I have read articles about younger children who have actually turned in school papers that use internet jargon instead of real words.
I agree with you on the subject of the shortened words. It has become ridiculous in our society that we can't spell out whole words. We can't say "talk to you later" because it has become "ttyl". I have even heard younger kids speaking this abbreviated speech to each other, and I wonder if we are going to be remember for our interesting jargon or for our laziness for shortening our words.
I agree that it is a bit ridiculous to close libraries to fund more computers. While computers are a very important tool that need to be available, students can share a fewer number of them. Learning to find information and research in books is a life skill that all students require
I think that the way technology is evolving is a good think because access to everything is so easy and quick. However, I also think that it is important to keep the past with you as you move into the future because along the way, the meanings of the material will get altered in translation. I agree that the way we use language will get worse because of they way the younger generation uses it. For example we tend to use slang or abbreviations on a normal basis.
I would have to agree that getting rid of books completely would be a bad thing but the way i look at it is the fact that we can get everything off the internet so why bother with books. Also i feel as an education major myself that i cant wait to teach the young children about the new technologies in thworld because wether we like it or not we are always going to have to deal with new things and its only getting worse!!
I agree with basically everything you said. I believe our vocabularies are shrinking, but is that really that bad of a thing? In the English language we can have 10 different synonyms for the same word, but our generation has a tendency to simpify the process and just use certain words more often because it's less confusing and just plain easier? The only way this would be bad is in the way we learn things; it has been proven that language shapes knowledge (when we think in our heads, we "thinkspeak" in English), so if our vocabulary shrinks, then theoretically so does the framework of our intelligence.
I dont think that they way technology is going is in a bad direction at all. I think the internet is the great for alot of things even though we may not read hardback books any more.
I also like the new technology that we have today but I also believe that we become more and more dependent on it everyday. I agree with sven that maybe we need to rely more on books. I'm not however going taking it to the extremes that the author of the article has. I can't believe what the one guy said about libraries becoming some sort of museum. I don't believe that would ever happen at least not as long as there are universities. It just seems that it could never happen.
As an English education major, I was at first impressed by some of Freire's points in the introduction. I liked the part where he said that literacy is crucial because "it is the primary means by which we interact with and construct our world." I thought this was a valid point and agreed with him, and I also liked that he was such a strong supporter of education. However, as I began to read his article, I started to really dislike him. As a future teacher, I resent the fact that he said teachers are are a "narrating subject" and the students are "listening objects" that will become "lifeless and petrified" because of the teachers. His whole banking concept of education in which teachers turn students into "containers that are to be filled by teachers" has an interesting point, but I don't think it's true all of the time. I believe that students can take the information they are given and either simply memorize it, or apply it to their lives. It is their decision on how they use the information, the teacher simply provides it. I also disliked how Freire continuously said that teachers were oppressing their students and taking away their creativity. It was like he was suggesting that teachers were trying to mold the students' minds to think as the government wants them to. The intro said that Freire spent a lot of time in Brazil and Africa, so maybe he was speaking more about their education systems than those of the U.S. Either way, I was still annoyed about his negative portrayal of teachers and did not like the article because I felt it implied that teachers are heartless and uncaring.
I love technology.I know that we depend on it and it makes our life much eaiser but i don't ever think it will take the place of a book. When was the last time you went to the bathroom with a computer on you lap. Theres just something about taking a newspaper in the john with you and reading it cover to cover.
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