I would have to say that social media has a big impact on what influences my perspective. We live in a world now where a lot of us do not even have cable tv anymore and we use different apps to watch movies and shows. I find myself hearing about news and events through facebook, tiktok videos, and word of mouth. If something interests me that I see on social media I will investigate further and do more research on it. I have never really traveled much and have not read a lot of multicultural books. I have lived in Sioux City my whole life and have only gone on a handful of family vacations to local places around us. Because of this, I would say that the way I experience other cultures is mostly based on what I hear about on different video clips or news clips I read about. The thing with only knowing about cultures through social media is that I am not sure what is always true and what is not. I feel like I only get certain things happening and now the whole picture. There is also no emotion attached to hearing about things. A lot of movies do not depict the facts of what is happening around us so it us up to us to do our own research on it. I know a lot of things that I think I know comes from technology and the media and this absolutely impacts how I learn about them. I know that I do need to experience and learn more about different cultures and educate myself on them. The best way I know how to do this is through different novels and different articles of what people have experienced or seen, otherwise I feel like I am just sheltered from the world and what is happening.
There are benefits to having technology available to us. It does help us learn more about different places and different things such as cultures and events happening that otherwise we would have no idea about it. It can give us quick access to a lot of things that we otherwise would never know about.It can also connect different people and different cultures of people from around the world together. It helps us communicate with one another and it gives us answers to questions we may have about different things.
Along with the benefits does come draw backs to using technology. I believe that now technology causes a lot of addiction in kids and students and even adults that I have seen. I have seen students hiding their computers to try to play games during the class and I have also see students walking in the hallways with their computers open playing on them and not paying attention to anything else. I have seen adults that constantly are on their phone scrolling. People have learned that they do not really need to learn anything anymore because they can find the answer to almost anything on the internet. The problem with this is that lots of times it can be false information. That false information is spread around and then more and more people start believing that false information. For example, just the other night my husband was telling me a story about a girl he saw a video about that had lost her job. I knew exactly what he was talking about but I had done more research and found out that it was actually a fake article and video about this girl. This just showed me how easy it is to believe things and spread false information around.
I believe that technology will always be a big factor in all of out lives and it is how we chose to utilize it that can either benefit or hurt us. Learning about different cultures is important and technology does give us easy access to find out and make connections with different cultures besides our own, as long as we are learning the correct information. This is beneficial because otherwise we may never experience or know about any other culture besides our own.
When discussing what influence out perspectives, I had stated that social media has a big influence on me but I also feel like our experiences in life can alter our perspectives on things. I think about the short story we read, Recitatif. Both Roberta and Twyla had different experiences and perceived their situations differently and what they actually remembered. We never found out what truly happened and it left us wondering whose perspective was right. Morrison made us think about race and multiculturism because we never found out exactly who was black and who was white, which in the end it did not matter. What mattered was that Twyla and Roberta found out that they were not that different after all. Before I read this, I had my own thoughts and perspectives that did alter how I felt when reading the story and about each character. . I think this can reflect on what I need to change in my teaching. Even though cultural attitudes emerge at an early age, when teacher candidates are exposed to disorienting ideas found in authentic narratives, the result maybe critical reflection and confrontation of their beliefs and cultural assumptions. Examining their own landscapes through a different cultural lens may yield other perspectives and consequently transform beliefs and practices (Szecsi, 2010). It is important to set aside our own assumptions and experience different cultures through narratives with a different perspective so we can learn and make connections to the best of out ability.
Szecsi, T., Spillman, C., Vazquez-Montilla, E., & Mayberry, S. C. (2009, November 30). Transforming teacher cultural landscapes by reflecting on multicultural literature. Multicultural Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ915271
Morrison, T. (1983). Recitatif.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more about the use of technology to transmit culture, at this point in our history. There is an ease about putting things into a platform for all to see, but there is no questioning the reason behind what is posted or why it is posted. This has made me think about a unit that I teach to my 7th-graders: "The Red Scarf Girl." We talk about the communist government that took over in the 60s, which leads us to the propaganda designed by and of their leader Mao. We discuss, on a large scale, why the artists used the colors and facial expressions they did. It is a chaotic discussion based on what we as Americans believe tied to what they understand about the communist style of government. All the students have to understand this unit is a transmission of ideas from their families, previous teachers, and stereotypical observations. Then I have to guide them through a minefield of what do you think questions, and how to find factual information.
I like how you were able to relate this to your own teachings in your classroom! I also have to incorporate technology when I teach a unit on the Taliban to my 6th-grade students. A lot of the students cannot comprehend what these people have to endure at the hands of other people. By reading different narratives, they are able to read and discuss the treatment and the culture of the citizens in Afghanistan. They are also able to use technology to better develop an understanding of what is going on in different cultures besides their own. They use this technology to take tours of Afghanistan, to read more articles about people who are directly affected by the Taliban, and even watch news articles about the treatment of woman in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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