Haas post from class
As I was typing up a post for a class discussion, I realized that it fit with what I was thinking about for this blog. So, with a few changes, I've posted it here. I've responded to a book by Christina Haas. Check the bottom of the post for full info.
I've been thinking about how quickly computers became an expected part of education. When I was in elementary school, our whole school had one computer lab and the computers there were probably much like the ones Haas uses in her studies. Only the "rich" kids had a computer at home. In middle school, I was assigned a research paper that included directions for both hand-written and typed versions. By the time I graduated high school, it was expected that an assignment of any length would to be typed. In the space of a few years, computers went from something I used maybe once a month (if our class was lucky!) to a machine that I used everyday in college.
Perhaps, in some ways technology like the computer is more transparent than Haas thinks. Maybe we've used it long enough that it begins to feel as natural as the pen once did. I don't usually even think about the computer anymore. When a professor in another class assigned a short page-long response to the reading, no one bothered to ask if it needed to be typed.
I don't like to write with pencil and paper anymore. I can't write quickly enough to get my thoughts down on paper and my hand cramps up too fast. Like the people that Haas' interviews, I used to kill thousands of trees every time I revised a paper. I didn’t feel comfortable without the actual paper in my hands. Now, shifting through multiple pages to find something annoys me when I can just scroll down. When I wonder if I'd like the text to go in a different direction, I just open up another window and try it. If I like what I write there better, it's a simple task to copy and paste it in to the original.
I wonder if Haas were to go back and ask those writers about their writing habits if the answers would have changed. I bet that they too would print less copies and find themselves more comfortable with the computer.
I don't just write differently with the computer, I think about what I'm doing differently. One of the studies Haas describes shows that writers do less planning when writing with a computer. I've seen that trend with my own writing. But, I don't think that it's definitely a bad thing. When I sit down to write, I probably have a topic in mind. In the days of handwriting, I used to do a great deal of pre-writing in the form of lists, maps, doodles, and other general stuff. Now, I just sit down and get started. Because I can physically type a paper pretty quickly, I have the time and freedom to let my mind sort of wander. I can let the words flow and if it doesn’t go as planned, I still feel free to follow my line of thought. Some of the papers I’ve felt best about have gone in directions I’d never have allowed had I done all the pre-writing I used to do.
*****The book used is: Haas, Christina. Writing Technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. ISBN: 0-8058-1994-0*****
I've been thinking about how quickly computers became an expected part of education. When I was in elementary school, our whole school had one computer lab and the computers there were probably much like the ones Haas uses in her studies. Only the "rich" kids had a computer at home. In middle school, I was assigned a research paper that included directions for both hand-written and typed versions. By the time I graduated high school, it was expected that an assignment of any length would to be typed. In the space of a few years, computers went from something I used maybe once a month (if our class was lucky!) to a machine that I used everyday in college.
Perhaps, in some ways technology like the computer is more transparent than Haas thinks. Maybe we've used it long enough that it begins to feel as natural as the pen once did. I don't usually even think about the computer anymore. When a professor in another class assigned a short page-long response to the reading, no one bothered to ask if it needed to be typed.
I don't like to write with pencil and paper anymore. I can't write quickly enough to get my thoughts down on paper and my hand cramps up too fast. Like the people that Haas' interviews, I used to kill thousands of trees every time I revised a paper. I didn’t feel comfortable without the actual paper in my hands. Now, shifting through multiple pages to find something annoys me when I can just scroll down. When I wonder if I'd like the text to go in a different direction, I just open up another window and try it. If I like what I write there better, it's a simple task to copy and paste it in to the original.
I wonder if Haas were to go back and ask those writers about their writing habits if the answers would have changed. I bet that they too would print less copies and find themselves more comfortable with the computer.
I don't just write differently with the computer, I think about what I'm doing differently. One of the studies Haas describes shows that writers do less planning when writing with a computer. I've seen that trend with my own writing. But, I don't think that it's definitely a bad thing. When I sit down to write, I probably have a topic in mind. In the days of handwriting, I used to do a great deal of pre-writing in the form of lists, maps, doodles, and other general stuff. Now, I just sit down and get started. Because I can physically type a paper pretty quickly, I have the time and freedom to let my mind sort of wander. I can let the words flow and if it doesn’t go as planned, I still feel free to follow my line of thought. Some of the papers I’ve felt best about have gone in directions I’d never have allowed had I done all the pre-writing I used to do.
*****The book used is: Haas, Christina. Writing Technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. ISBN: 0-8058-1994-0*****
posted by Spelunker at 8:39 AM
2 Comments:
I run into the same problem with the idea of transparent computer technology. I got into computers when I was 13 when I bought my first PC (an Apple IIc). I've been using computes (especially for writing) ever since. I don't even think about the technology that I'm using. To me, it's transparent. However, that's not the case for everyone. When I was teaching in Apache Junction, I found myself on the other side of the Digital Divide. Some of my students didn't even know how to log into the school's network. That reminded me that maybe the technology isn't as transparent to everyone as I thought. It was a real eye-opener. ~Steve
Perhaps, like the pen and paper, computers become transparant through practise and use. Then the Digital Divide becomes not only a matter of who has what technology available for his/her use, but who is comfortable enough to use the technologies at his/her disposal without noticable problems or issues.
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