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Five to Six 50-minute sessions
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| Overview |
 This
lesson plan extends the kind of analytical thinking that students do when
they compose book reviews by asking them to review a particular technology—anything
from a cell phone to a webcam, or an ink pen to a satellite dish. Using a list
of evaluation and review questions, students profile a
technology that they've read about, used themselves, or researched, in order
to think about why people use the technologies that they do when they do. After
their investigation, students write a review of the technology that explains
not only their personal evaluation of the object but also offers recommendations
on who might use the technology.
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| From Theory to Practice |
In Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century, Cynthia
L. Selfe urges that educators “must try to understand—to pay
attention to—how technology is now inextricably linked to literacy
and literacy education
in this country; and second, we must help colleagues, students, administrators,
politicians, and other Americans gain some increasingly critical and productive
perspective on technological literacy” (24). Just learning to use a piece
of software or new digital gizmo, what Selfe defines as computer
literacy, is not enough. We need to explore technological literacy, which Selfe
defines as “a complex set of socially and culturally situated values,
practices, and skills involved in operating linguistically within the context
of electronic environments, including reading, writing, and communicating” (11).
In other words, our classroom activities need to consider not just how to use
technology
but also to pay attention to why we use the technologies we do when we do.
Further Reading
Selfe, Cynthia L. Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century:
The Importance of Paying Attention. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1999.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- read and analyze review essays.
- analyze and evaluate a specific technology.
- write a review essay on a specific technology.
-
reflect on how people use technologies.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- Make copies of the Text Analysis Chart, and if desired, the Technology
Profile Questions.
- Choose 4 or 5 technology reviews to use as examples for the class, and
make copies of the reviews to support small group exploration of the genre.
The following resources can provide reviews:
- Reviews
are available from Consumer Reports, from another print publications
including newspapers and magazines, or from an online review site, such as
the following: Technology
Review, C|NET
Reviews, ZDNet
Reviews, and Consumer
Reports for Kids (this last, suitable for younger students, though
the site is no longer updated).
- Industry reviews are also sometimes available
on shopping sites, such as Amazon.com. To ensure the quality and appropriateness
of the reviews, be sure to select professional reviews as models for
the class, rather than the less polished reviews posted by people who have
purchased the product.
- Visit a student-friendly search engine such as Yahooligans and search for
reviews. You'll find reviews for a variety of technologies. Students can
also use these search engines for research on their own reviews.
- Test the Technology
Profile on
your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have
the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in
from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
Session One
- Share a technology review with students, either passing out copies or displaying
the text using an overhead projector.
- Ask students to identify the kind of text that you have displayed, and note
their responses on the board or on chart paper.
- Explain that the class will spend this session identifying the characteristics
of the technology review genre.
- Pass out copies of the Text
Analysis Chart.
- Model the analysis of a technology review by working through the chart for
the technology review.
- Once you're sure that students understand the analysis process, arrange the
class into small groups.
- Give each group an additional technology review and ask them to use the Text
Analysis Chart to determine its characteristics.
- If desired, groups might write key characteristics on a piece of chart paper
or an area of the board, in order to facilitate sharing information.
- Circulate among students as they work, answering any questions.
- Once the groups have worked through their texts, ask each group to share
its findings with the class.
- With all the information shared, ask the class to consider all the details
and suggest a class list of the genre's characteristics.
- If students posted lists of characteristics for
their texts, look across the lists for common elements and add them to the
class list of characteristics.
- Ask students to note specific characteristics that make the reviews successful.
- Finish the session by reviewing the class list and making any additions or
revisions. Save the list for the next session.
Session Two
- Explain that during this session, students will begin work on their own technology
reviews.
- Review the class list of characteristics for technology reviews. Make any
additions or revisions.
- Ask students to brainstorm a list of technologies that they use, see, or
know about in their notebooks, in order to give students a few minutes to gather
their thoughts. Alternately, if you're working with readings, ask students
to brainstorm a list of technologies included in the reading.
- After everyone has collected a short list of ideas, ask students to share
the technologies, and write all the responses on the board, chart paper, or
an overhead. You will return to this list in later sessions.
- If students have difficulty building a list, share the List
of Technologies Topics from Wikipedia.
- At this point, you should have an extensive list of technologies assembled.
Step back and review the entire list with the students. Make any additions,
revisions, or deletions students suggest as you examine the list as a whole.
- Explain the criteria for selecting a technology:
- Choose something you are familiar with or that you want to learn more
about.
- Choose something that you can keep an open mind about as you evaluate it.
You'll need to be able to talk about its strengths and weaknesses.
- Choose something that you can readily find additional information about (because
reviewing obscure technologies may be difficult).
- Using the list of characteristics of the technology review genre, add any
criteria for the choice necessary, but avoid limiting the options too much.
Even though students aren't likely to find a technology review of an ink
pen, for instance, it's still a valid choice for the assignment.
- Ask students to select technologies on the list to review in detail
and then to spend a few minutes jotting down what they already know about
the technology in their journals (or what they'd like to know).
- With preliminary ideas written down, share available resources that students
can use for their research on the technology.
- Allow students the rest of the session to gather information about the
technologies they have chosen.
- Ask students to come to the next session with basic research on their technologies
completed.
Optional Session
- If desired, allow students an additional session to research their technologies
using information from the library, online resources, and personal experience.
In addition to general Internet sites listed in the Web Resources, students
can tap other online reviews and the manufacturer’s site for many technologies
(e.g., Nintendo, Tivo).
- Encourage students to explore information on the technology, its development,
its use, and its potential.
- Point students to the list of characteristics for a technology review developed
in earlier sessions.
- Ask students to come to the next session with their research completed.
Session Three
- Display the Technology
Profile to the class, and demonstrate how the tool works. If you prefer
not to use the online tool, pass out copies of the Technology Profile
Questions.
Answering the questions on the handout or the online tool will help students
synthesize and explore their findings for the technology that they have
researched.
- As you demonstrate the tool, be sure to click Finish to show students
how to print and/or save their work:
- Click the Finish button at the top of the window.
- Type your name, and click Print.
- Print and/or save your work:
- To print, use the Print command under the File menu.
- To save, use the Save as... command under the File menu.
- Circulate among students as they work, answering any questions.
Remind students to print their work.
- For homework, ask students to use the notes from previous sessions and
the information from the Technology
Profile to compose their technology reviews. Students
should come to the next class session with a complete draft.
Session Four
- Divide students into groups and ask them to share their technology reviews
with one another.
- Pass out additional blank copies of the Text Analysis
Chart.
- In their groups, have students share their reviews then have the group
complete the Text Analysis Chart, identifying the characteristics
of each review.
- Circulate among groups as they read and respond to one another’s
reviews. As necessary, remind students to focus on how well reviews match the
characteristics of a technology review (rather than on whether they agree
with the reviewer’s opinion).
- When students have finished responding to one another’s reviews, gather
the class for a general discussion of the criteria for the reviews. Answer
any questions that arise about the characteristics and how they can be incorporated
in students’ drafts.
- If time remains in the session, students can begin work on revisions to
their drafts.
- For homework, students should create final, polished versions of their
reviews.
Ask students to bring two copies of their reviews to the next session, if possible.
Session Five
- Collect one copy of students’ technology reviews for your response.
- Arrange students into groups based on their technologies. You can use the
categories included on the List
of Technologies Topics from Wikipedia; or you can create your own classification
system. The goal is to gather students who explored similar technologies for
their projects.
- Give each group a piece of chart paper and ask them to brainstorm what
their technology reviews reveal
about them, as people who use (or are interested in) a particular kind of
technology.
Have students consult the second copy of their reviews during this process as
needed—to share with the group, find examples, and so on.
- After each group has had a chance to collect a list, ask groups to post
and share their observations with the rest of the class.
- After all the lists are posted, ask students to identify patterns among
the lists. Add or revise information on the charts as students discuss
the information.
- Conclude the session by asking students what the lists and their reviews
reveal about the ways that people respond to technology. Encourage them
to explore how their answers might change based on the ways that they align
themselves—as students at their
school, as members of their family, as citizens in their community, and
so forth.
- For homework, ask students to reflect on what they’ve learned about
their use and evaluation of technology in a freewriting or journal
entry.
Extensions
- After completing their autobiographies, try the Paying
Attention to Technology: Writing Technology Autobiographies lesson
plan. In this lesson, students brainstorm lists of their interactions with
technology, map these interactions graphically, and then compose narratives
of their most significant interactions with technology. By writing these
technology autobiographies, students explore what their stories reveal
about why we use the technologies we do when we do.
Web Resources
- Definition
of Technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology
- The Wikipedia definition of technology can help students see the range
of tools, gadgets, and machines that can be thought of as technology.
- List of Technologies Topics from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_basic_technology_topics
- Like the definition above, this Wikipedia entry helps expand the items that
students list as technologies by providing explicit examples of tools and machines.
- List
of Video Game Websites
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/video-games
- This page provides a a list of notable websites that are devoted
to video games.
- Computer Space, from the American Museum of the Moving Image
http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/cs98/Default.htm
- This online exhibit shows the evolution of computer video games from 1971 to 1997.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Use copies of the Text Analysis Chart to structure feedback and
formal assessment of students’ reviews. Tie comments and feedback directly
to the characteristics and criteria that students established during the class
sessions.
Review students’ final reflections on the evaluation of technology and
provide
support
for
reflections that demonstrate students are able to move beyond their own personal
stories
to draw
conclusions and ask questions about the how technologies influence the world
around them and what technologies reveal about the cultures that they are a part
of.
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4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
7 - Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8 - Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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