Shakespeare and...?

When should technology be used in an English classroom?  

Where does it fit? Wedged between Shakespeare and sentence frames?  Book-ending Emily Dickinson and Poe? Is a beautiful accessory useful in conveying traditional learning or supplementing a traditional curriculum?  Or does technology and the modern era call for a revolution of language learning and communication?  Will the classics die in a tidal wave of informational texts and graphically embellished electronic novels?

 Could our modern culture be advancing at such a rate as to finally put Shakespeare himself  (at least in his printed form) in the musty edges of a cultural grave?

As lovers of literature, we hope that day will never come.  But we must embrace the benefits of using technology to connect with our students and their learning.

Tom Whitby, in his October 1st blog post entitled "Do We Really Need Connected Educators?" relates the imperative of digital literacy in education:

"...access is no longer limited to a select few, but rather it is available to anyone who is digitally literate...Ubiquitous access is one reason why digital literacy is now going to be taught in American schools as we move forward. Students in our school system today will be given the keys to the information lock boxes of our society for their consumption".

Students now have access to thousands of years of knowledge acclimation at their fingertips.
But though they have the keys, they may not be using them to unlock said 'lock boxes'.  As we are learning as future educators, students need a reason to search out the information.   And I believe that it is a humanistic connection students need to make with the material in order to peak their interest.  Literature builds a humanistic connection in an incredibly deep way.  Reading allows us to participate in the writer's creation, through activating our imaginations, instead of filling them with completed images, as video games, movies, and technologically based learning usually do.  And we need to understand the writers of the past, in the context of our shared humanity, in order to fully understand our human state.  But technology appears to be the 'language' of our students.  The question then becomes: if our students speak the language of technology, how do we 'translate' the meaningful influence of great literature into a relevant format?


At this point early in my career as an educator, I believe that technology can never substitute for:

• Authentic reading:  Students can use technology to aid reading, such as Kindle, iPad, computer, iPhone, ect., but no matter the depth of the technological tool, nothing will ever replace the educational value of reading.  Reading is essential in all learning, and literacy is the foundation of education and academia, and there is little evidence that academic learning will ever be effective without a reading component.  
• Face-to-Face conversations and collaboration:  social media and google docs are great for collaborating on projects and working on assigned tasks.  But have you ever noticed how hard it is to brainstorm and converse naturally in a 'physically separated' environment?  Nothing beats being able to see the faces of the people you are working with, and brainstorming is so much easier, and I believe more enriching and effective, in person.  
• Note-taking and writing: it's extremely easy to type out notes.  A good typist's fingers respond nearly automatically to the words being communicated, with little thought processing.  Its much easier to remember the things you manually write down, and for junior highers, many or whom do not have access to a working computer or printer, this is one of their only options for most of their coursework.
• Real books and classic authors:  nothing will ever fully replace a real book.  New authors will come and go, their works drifting about on the scales of cultural value.  I am all for new writings and diverse authorship. But the voices of the classics have called loudly out to humanity for many years, and there is likely good reason.  Our culture will shift and change, and so will our values, but good writing remains because it continually reveals to us our unarguable and un-aging utter human nature.  Our literary cannon can grow, but it should never be reduced. 

Technology is beautiful as a tool to gather information and communicate in conjunction with the foundation of original texts and unique ideas. I believe that using technology to open the gates of communication for our students is central to their development as young learners.  But the learning should not be fully encompassed in the act of communicating or acquiring information, but rather in the ideas and concepts that are being communicated. Below are a listing of activities that I believe are ideal for technological supplement:

• Group work on assigned tasks: once group work has been brainstormed and assigned(perhaps in class), technological wonders such as google docs create an ideal workspace and allow for distance communication and simple collaboration.  
• Access to articles and informative texts:  Save the earth, and preserve trees. For a brief reading of a homework assignment article for high school students, online access is great.  
• Optional assignments and extra credit
• Presentations: video clips and multi-media art
• Responses to literary works: blogs, websites, multi-media art...
• Online quizes and forums 
• Submission of essays
• Dictionary access for at home use
• Plagiarism checks