connecting

This particular one is based upon a conversation I had where I saw a student texting and assumed it was a friend.  Then she said, "Actually, I'm finishing the article for your class."

"What is one item of technology that the world would be better off without?" I ask one morning for Bell Work.  It feels like a soft ball question, but a few students struggle with it.

"Let's get to work," I implore two boys.  

"I'm sorry, I'm thinking," one answers.  

"I'm sorry.  Go ahead and think.  Sometimes I confuse the two.  Working and thinking aren't always the same thing. But after a few minutes, I want you to take a stab at it."  

An ELL student calls me over, "What is he going to stab?"  I remind her of idioms and she says she will try and use it.  She later says to her teacher, "I'm will stab you at the lesson." 

It sparks a surprisingly intense debate, first on our blogs and then in class. One boy answers, "I think nuclear power.  We found something so small we can't even see it and then we use it to destroy people in seconds."  

"That powers our city," another students responds.  

"Yes, and then we leave the waste for future generations.  It's the loan store of energy."  

"I think television is the worst, because it makes people lazy and unable to think." 

"I think the microwave is the worstest.  No one cooks anymore.  Everything we eat is fast, but it sucks.  Nothing tastes right."  

One student says, "The world would be best without cell phones.  No one talks anymore.  Go to a bus stop.  Who is talking?  No one.  They are all texting instead.  We're becoming cyborgs."  

"I think the people at the bus my actually have it right," a student explains.

"Can you explain why?"

"Cell phones connect and cars divide.  It's why computers are better than TV's."  

Students generally agree with this principle and begin offering their own examples of connecting and dividing.  Finally, I point out, "I know this might shock you, but I don't own a cell phone because I think it's a trap.  I think it's a web that people think will connect them and then people build their own cocoon of isolation.  I think that's a trick of technology.  It sometimes promises to connect you and really it is dividing you. It's why I only watch one or two TV shows a week.  I need to connect with the shared pop culture, but I know that too much of it will leave me isolated and I'll miss my family."  

A student responds, "What if it's both?  What if all technology divides and connects?  Take writing.  When you write on paper, you aren't really talking to anyone.  You can end up alone.  Maybe you need some alone time, maybe you don't.  Maybe you need to send a letter to someone and it becomes something that connects you.  Maybe you write a book and people share thoughts through long chapters.    Or a car.  We can say it divides us, but I would never see my abuelita if we didn't have a car."