I’ve been glad to be able to read several pieces that take up questions in the readings for this DF experience about the ethical use, history of, and pedagogical rationales for using technolgoy in the classroom. I have grown increasingly skeptical of higher educational institutions’ exhortation to use “certain technologies” (often costly ones requiring pricey subscriptions) because, once they do get enough buy-in, and faculty and staff have found meaningful ways to use them with students/in classrooms, then the access is pulled by the very same administrative body that exhorted us to use it. And, as many of these readings have noted, technologies (purchase/subscription of them, the ways they structure our approaches to teaching, etc.) are not neutral and there are so many issues to consider when committing to using tech in classrooms. Truly, my goals in participating in this two-week series were as follows: I wanted to reflect on what technologies I rely on and why–how they reflect (or don’t reflect) my teaching philosophy, and what (free/oer) alternatives I might consider (and why).
If I could redesign/rethink a technology for my current work as writing center director, I would, if I had the capacity/skill set, redesign and streamline the tech around writing center data gathering. The third-party software that most WCs use nationally has become prohibitively expensive, and the tech itself is clunky at best. My team has created a work-around through MS Office apps that is working very well, but it’s not as robust in generating data as the other third-party program is. (True, this desire to change this tech isn’t specifically related to my work in the classroom, but it still has significant implications for students we work with at the Center for Research & Writing).
