Hola all! I’m Deon Goggins, a 20-year-old English Subject Matter major, dance minor. I’m an aspiring dancer, choreographer, English teacher, and writer extraordinaire. When I graduate in May, I want to pursue a master’s degree in education from Stanford, while simultaneously obtaining credentials to teach Dance and English at the High School level.
I don’t know about you, but I remember the “good ole days,” when we all sat in a classroom. Peering at the teacher, shoulders hunched over, seemingly bored, but we were so drawn into the teacher that we sunk into ourselves, completely surrendering to the fantasy the teachers were creating around us. The teacher would read from a book, or write on the chalkboard, and we had to jot down notes quickly while still remaining engaged. I feel that a complete surrender to media technology in the classroom is more than just making my sense of nostalgia extinct; it promotes a sense of near laziness. When students have to attentively write down notes, rather than just being able to rely on “the teacher putting the notes on the overhead,” or “quickly typing the notes down and then checking their facebooks”, they engage more in the subject matter.
Personally, I feel technology has stripped away my ability to retain knowledge at an accelerated pace. The facts that I remember the most are the ones that I’ve learned using my auditory sense in the classroom, or things that I’ve read from a book, or printout. When I read things on a computer screen my mind strays and wonders, and I constantly think about text messaging, my facebook, or a hilarious gossip blog; most of all, my eyes hurt.
