{"id":1110,"date":"2016-10-03T21:17:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T01:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2016-10-03T21:30:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T01:30:59","slug":"the-techno-glaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/the-techno-glaze\/","title":{"rendered":"The Techno Glaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article:<\/i> \u201cAnd Their Eyes Glazed Over\u201d<\/a> by Joelle Renstrom
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\nSummary:<\/i>
\nProfessor Joelle Renstrom\u2019s undergraduate students aren\u2019t paying attention in class. Instead, their hands inch toward their cell phones around the 50-minute class\u2019s 30-minute mark, and instead of engaging in chatting and playful banter immediately preceding and following class, their fingers are flying, engaged in text messages and swiping through Internet pages. As a result, she has a no-cell-phone policy within the class; violations\u2014as in phones ringing during class\u2014grant the class a free concert as the student must sing or dance as punishment (it\u2019s in the syllabus). Other forms of technology are just as bad: students with laptops rarely use them to take notes or look at the class\u2019s daily reading; instead, students are engaged in non-class online activities, such as shopping or checking social media. Even students who do take notes on their laptops miss out more than those who write notes by hand.
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\nDistraction equals students missing out on vital information, and technology has made procrastinators out of non-procrastinators and worsened procrastination tendencies for those who already procrastinate. As Renstrom teaches classes on writing and research, she has noticed\u2014and various researchers have shown that\u2014what we read affects how we write. Online materials are geared toward simplistic syntax, and she has noticed the detrimental effects to her students\u2019 grammar, word-processing, and critical-thinking skills. Even when the occasional rare student does make a breakthrough into technology\u2019s harmful effects, that insight washes over the rest of his or her classmates who sit glassy-eyed, already zoned out and tuned back into their little worlds. While Renstrom is forced to embrace technology in the classroom for reasons she enumerates in her article, she is depressed by the detrimental effects it has on the current generation raised by the Internet.
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\nCharacters and Their Roles:<\/i><\/p>\n