Tag Archives: NY Times

“Tweet Less, Kiss More.” Indeed.

1 Person Shared Their Thoughts

I love Twitter. The reason I love Twitter is not because I can listen in on what celebrities are doing, but because my Twitter feed contains tons of posts from interesting people about interesting things. I’ve blogged about some of these before, often relating to things posted by Kathy Gill or Hanson Hosein.

If you have read posts from previous weeks, you might recall my comments on Hosein’s post “Death to Distraction.” Today, thanks to Katey Deeny, I found someone else who shares our views. On July 16, 2010, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Bob Herbert wrote a piece entitled “Tweet Less, Kiss More.” In it, Herbert shares many of the same sentiments that Hosein and myself (as well as many others) have:

I don’t think we can stay in touch with our song by constantly Twittering or tweeting, or thumbing out messages on our BlackBerrys, or piling up virtual friends on Facebook.

We need to reduce the speed limits of our lives. We need to savor the trip. Leave the cellphone at home every once in awhile. Try kissing more and tweeting less. And stop talking so much.

Listen.

I couldn’t agree more. I was recently on a trip to the Oregon coast, and tried to keep my phone away as much as possible, only bringing it out to search for restaurants on Yelp and take pictures. It was a wonderful feeling of freedom and disconnectivity.

I definitely recommend giving his article a read. While you’re at it, check out Hosein’s segment on New Day Northwest, where he discusses going on a gadget diet.

Florida on Education

3 People Shared Their Thoughts

I should probably begin this post with the disclosure that my mother has been teaching in secondary and higher education for almost thirty years, and I myself am very interested in education, education technology, and alternative literacies. That being said, I (so far) am very much in support of what Florida Governor Charlie Crist did yesterday, by vetoing an education bill that would have dramatically changed education.

According to the NY Times article (linked above):

The bill was supported by the Florida Department of Education and statewide business groups, which expressed disappointment in the governor’s decision, saying that teachers should be held more accountable. But the governor, announcing his veto in the Capitol in Tallahassee, said the changes envisioned would put “teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs and teaching certificates, without a clear understanding of how gains will be measured.”

I want to draw attention to the governor’s statement for a moment. I don’t think he, nor I, nor any educator, feels that teachers should not be held somewhat accountable for what goes on in their classroom, BUT they are not wholly responsible, nor is it fair to hold them accountable for each students learning. The main reason I say this is tracking “how much someone learns” in a classroom is IMPOSSIBLE. Not only does every person learn in a different way, they learn at different rates, pick up on different issues, tune out certain things… and have lives that go on outside of the classroom that affect their mental state ALL THE TIME.

I’m never going to “learn” the same things in any given class as the person next to me. Each of us have our own academic agenda, our own reasons for taking the class, skills/knowledge/experiences that we come into the class with, etc. Please, someone tell me HOW anyone could craft a test that measures my “learning” in a class? What if I don’t articulate well with words, but am an artist? How can you allow me to express my thoughts and measure them up against others? How are those thoughts going to be quantified and given numerical value to evaluate a teacher? This makes NO SENSE.

Yes there are tests that can measure “skills” that a student should “master” in a classroom… but if that student only consumes information to vomit it all back up on a test, what values are we instilling in our children? What are these tests really measuring, if anything, and are they worth our time? I understand the need for greater funding in our public schools, but arbitrary tests of “value” and “effectiveness” of teachers is not the answer.

Everything is shrinking!

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In the course of reading various articles today I’ve heard about a magazine editor losing her job and the shrinking professional photography industry. For many people, especially those of us who write, shoot, and publish frequently (and perhaps for money), this is not new news. But the fact that these issues are coming up more and more frequently (and all on the same day) makes you wonder about where these industries are going.

In speaking with my roommate’s father, a Seattle-based commercial photographer in the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s, it seems that the work that was once split up between about 20 people is now split between over 200. Yes, there are definitely more people and more things to take pictures of, but the internet has allowed for more people to be accessed than phonebooks previously did, and the current affordability of publishing tools has allowed for more people to become photographers (or editors/writers/take your pick). I don’t necessarily regard this as a bad thing, but then again, I’m only 20 and still sheltered by being in school.

I very much value the way that people think with, through and about media and mediated interactions. I enjoy how more people (in and out of my generation) are taking to digital space and allowing for interactions to happen there. We are sharing our lives online via words and images. The main opportunity (“because there are no such things as problems…”) that this presents is for a flattening of traditional top-down media hierarchies and the rise of things like citizen journalism and the blending of the amateur and professional class (at least in appearance). While this has severe consequences on the lives of many in a number of industries, it should also be looked at as a chance for us to evaluate how and where we get our information and what jobs are essential as we move forward into this increasingly digital era. What are the skills that we expect of all people, versus the skills that are still specialized?

With the increase of media literacy in younger and younger generations, as well as forums and “free” lessons about things like photography online, a person with a computer and internet access can essentially teach themselves (with practice) to be very good at a number of skills that used to be quite specialized. I’m not saying that the value of these skills has become less, or that people can become professionals overnight, but learning how to use a camera or make a video is not as out of our reach as it once was. It is now becoming expected of us, and as we learn these skills, we are less willing to pay others to use them, even if they can do so to a much greater extent than we can.

None of this is to say that people are losing jobs because they are incompetent. In fact it is quite the opposite. Society is just gaining more skills, and access to cheaper services, that is causing these issues. Perhaps we were charging too much before, or perhaps we are becoming too thrifty now, but either way, times are definitely changing.