Dystopia and English Class in the Computer Lab

English Class in the Computer Lab


One thing I really liked about Tracy Tarasuik's article, "Moving my English Class to the Computer Lab", was her observations and comments on her students' multitasking in the computer lab. This is something I've both seen and done myself during school. In high school, a teacher would send us off to complete various things on the computer and essentially every student would have other tabs open to things like email which they would flip back to while completing their work. I was happy to read the Tarasuik held back on her scoldings to "stay on task" so that she could observe what the students had the capacity to complete.


The survey she designed was a really concise way of getting statistics about the students in her school and getting to know them and their habits better. From these results Tarasuik was able to tailor her lessons and activities so that they would work for her students most efficiently. Tarasuik discovered that some of her students, Robert included, were avid YouTubers; they both watched, filmed, and produced videos on YouTube. Doing this properly requires a lot of skill and effort. Tarasuik knew she had discovered Robert's prominent form of literacy. Unfortunately, in many of today's public schools, websites such as YouTube are blocked from both the students' and teachers' access. I know in my own school district, any video or music streaming website was prohibited for anyone to access or view. I believe this seriously limits the potential of learning from modern media in the classroom. There were many times in my Sociology class that the teacher wanted to show some really relevant YouTube video and simply could not. In the same class, we ran into issues when we were trying to learn about racial issues and bullying; many of these websites were forbidden due to their "inappropriate content". I know this kind of loops back to the censorship discussion...but I still believe these websites shouldn't be restricted as they are far too useful in the classroom.

Given essentially every teacher I've had restricts the use of Wikipedia in the classroom, I was a little concerned when I saw the section header "Wikis", but after reading the section I thought it was a great idea. Tarasuik first had her class look at the wikis of other classes so that they had a good idea of what the could do with their own. The groups were then able to create their own and add to them as they read through their respective novels. This webpage involved teamwork, vocabulary, summaries, characters, and more. Essentially, it's all the good stuff in a worksheet but made digital. Her students were more motivated to do the page as they knew it could potentially be viewed by others online. I think this was a smart lesson idea for Tarasuik's class.


Dystopian Novels


I've found that I actually enjoy reading dystopian novels; I've specifically enjoyed The Giver, The Hunger Games, and The Uglies. Each of these three books [some morphed into series] gives the history behind how their current society came to be. In The Hunger Games:

"An unspecified time before the current date, the face of the Earth changed and modern civilization was seemingly destroyed. It is unknown precisely what caused the "end of the world", but major landmasses changed shape as the sea level rose to unknown heights around the planet. Some time after the end of the world as we knew it, a nation was established in North America that would soon come to be known as Panem. It is unknown precisely when Panem was established and how long it has existed, though it is certain that Panem has been around for more than seventy-five years, and it's entirely possible for it to be at least a century or two old.

Panem eventually grew large enough that it was segmented into thirteen separate districts, each responsible for producing goods of a particular industry to serve the growing needs of the nation, and all operating under the auspices of Panem's oppressive Capitol. Its exact method of expansion is unknown; it is possible that some of the separate districts may have even once been smaller, separate nations that were eventually annexed by Panem."

                                          (http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Panem)


In the book The Uglies, the world that you and I are currently living in now has been destroyed since we have used too much metal which has rusted, deteriorated, and collapsed after the creation of an "oil bug". This bug made oil combust immediately upon contact with oxygen. The few members of the population who managed to survive combined into cities which they designed to be self-sufficient and eco-friendly so as to prevent another collapse of the world.


I think what I find most interesting about these books is how plausible they all are...I mean we, as a society, really do use far too much metal and oil for our own (and our planet's) good. Something is bound to go incredibly wrong soon. These books are an interesting way to fathom what will happen to the remaining population after such an occurence.