Revised Interview Questions Take 2

For the interview conducted by Justin, Sandy, and Angie

1. Can you tell us a little about your career? You have lived and worked overseas. Can you share a little about that?
2. What types of technology do you use in your job? What impact does technology have on your ability to do your job in the various places where you've lived and worked?
3. **What kinds of technology do you like using the most and why?
4. What are the limits of technology, particularly in other countries' context?
1. In your work you travel, are there issues of adaptability? For instance, how does using a cellphone change from place to place?
5. Could you describe the literacy that you observe in the places where you travel? What benefits and challenges does literacy pose for a culture, or the cultures you've visited? What role does technology play in literacy (or the lack thereof)?
6. What changes have you seen to technology in your work? How have those changes impacted the work that you do?
7. **What has been the biggest impact of technology on how you read and write?

1. Which technology do you enjoy working with least? What are some of your frustrations in working with different technologies?

Interview Questions

Justin Hopkins, Sandra Johnston, and Angie Carter's Interview Questions for Podcast

• Can you tell us a little about your job?
• How does literacy play into that? How does technology play into that?
• What types of technology do you use in your job?
• Do you enjoy working with technology? Please explain.
• When did you begin using technology?
• What changes have you seen to technology in your work? How have those changes impacted the work that you do?
• Which technology do you enjoy working with most? Which technology do you enjoy working with least? What are some of your frustrations in working with different technologies?
• What kind of social media do you use? Why those particular platforms?
• What differences have you noticed between how technology is used in Africa, Europe, and the United States?
• Can you tell us a little about your career? You have lived and worked overseas. Can you share a little about that?
• What are the limits of technology, particularly in other countries' context?
• In your work you travel, what are some of the issues of adaptability? For instance, how does using a cellphone change from place to place?
• How did Y2K impact your business?
• Where is your field going in terms of what technology will be used, what technology will fade out (become less important)?
• She has a device that allows her to access the Internet anywhere. It downloads more than she wants.
• What technology do you use for professional use? How do those compare for the ones that you use for personal use?
• What technologies do you see being applied to literacy issues?
• What technology does the average African have access to?
• Could you describe the literacy that you observe in the places where you travel? What benefits and challenges does literacy pose for a culture, or the cultures you've visited?

Technology Narrative

I just posted my Technology Narrative (really a draft of it) on my webpage. I'm looking forward to your comments.

Tech Life (Effects of Writing Instruction)

What possibilities for teaching with technology most excite you? Why?

The possibility for teaching with technology that I find most exciting is the idea of more efficient collaboration among students and the opportunity that students to write for real audiences. I feel like the ease with which anyone can publish on the web opens doors for students to connect with people of similar interests and to see audience as more nuanced that "Americans" or "college students." As students have to consider how someone will really react to their writing and the focus on writing for a single person (a teacher) fades, I believe that students are likely to see more value in what they write and how. At the same time, I worry that the ease of publication makes it less likely that students will take the time to really craft what they have to say. I also worry about students (and my own) privacy. The politics of the classroom can make it difficult for students to express their reservations about posting their writing online. The ubiquity of online text makes the dangers seem less apparent, but the dangers range from the annoying (trolls) to the dangerous (stalkers). 

Additionally, I want students to be connected to a range of resources--I find that another compelling aspect of technology. But the sheer availability of material makes it hard to recognize that some students are still uncomfortable with technology--not everyone has a smartphone or a laptop or a computer. And even those that do may know how to do the bare minimum with them--make a call, write a letter or a paper, check for email. In a classroom setting, the desire to teach with technology then creates a series of logistical concerns about whether students will be able to do what I would be asking them to do, and if not, would we have time to teach the technology and make it understandable enough to employ it in writing.

Generally, I feel fairly confident with the most usual forms of technology for personal use--email, Word processing programs, scanning, surfing the Net, making online purchases, etc. And I even feel fairly comfortable attempting nearly forms of technology for personal use--blogging, RSS feeds, creating a webpage, and so on, but I don't feel comfortable bringing these technologies into the classroom because I am not sure enough about how to manage any technological problems that I could help students manage those in a way that would help them be successful in the assigned pedagogical task. In other words, I am concerned about the technology impeding learning rather than aiding it. Yet I realize that I am not doing my students any favors by ignoring the technology--at some point, they will have to be exposed to it, and I would rather have them deal with it in a writing class so they can deal with rhetorical and critical issues.

The Time Traveler & Technology

• When compared, the two film clips help illuminate a key question for this course: How has our relationship to technology changed over time?  

So I just watched the first 15 or so minutes of the 1960 version and 2002 version of The Time Traveler. I found it interesting that the 1960 version focuses on technology for technology's sake or technology used for business or to make a profit where the 2002 version focuses on technology as a way to preserve relationships. In the 1960 version, Alexander seems to invent the time machine as a matter of curiosity, of a desire to see if it is possible to break the fourth dimension, but in the 2002 version, Alexander's entire need to invent and build the time machine comes from his desire to prevent his fiancee's death. The ways in which technology can be used seem bound up in the values placed on technology, although in both cases the usefulness of the machine is highlighted. In the 1960 version, the businessmen that Alexander invites to his home to see the prototype are more interested in its potential application for profit. In particular, they see a connection to military uses. On the other hand, the 2002 version, Alexander confides in no one that he is building the machine. His desire to use the machine is entirely for personal reasons. In each film, the motives behind invention come into play--why is technology created? for whom is it created?

• How has film technology changed?
• How have we changed as film viewers?
• How has our understanding of time evolved?
• How does fiction/science fiction impact our relationship to technology?

And of course, the ways in which technology can shape the future are interesting. The 1960's film does not touch on this in the 15-minutes that I saw, but the 2002 version suggests the changes that happen. As Dr. Pagnucci noted, a 2002 audience wants to see the time machine move through time, so the audience sees the passage of time in time-lapse photography (which probably wasn't available for the 1960's version). Not only is nature shown--a spider spinning a web, sunrises/sunsets, ivy budding and flowering--but rapid changes in technology appear too. Alexander (and the movie audience) watch as a warehouse is filled with Ford cars (horseless carriages), short buildings are destroyed to make way for skyscrapers, soon jumbo jets fill the air. The progress from 1899 to the present and into the future is all shown in about 5 minutes. Interestingly, some of the technology shown in the 2002 version would have been considered science fiction had it been shown in the 1960 version.

I love watching and reading science fiction, particularly stories that deal with time travel. It seems like many stories look at technology as a way to improve lives--the implication being that if only we have the right technology or a newer technology or a newer/different application of technology, then all problems can be solved--people don't have to die, wars can be prevented or shortened, etc. But as the 2002 version suggests, technology doesn't always work the way we want. All this reminds me some myths that Selber points out in his book Multiliteracies for a Digital Age where he suggests that sometimes we as a society often see technology as only a solution and not as a potential problem-creator.