{Author Name [first-name middle-name-initials last-name]}
{Institution Affiliation [name of Author’s institute]}
Paper Critique
The classmate’s project presented has been converted into a very intelligent video that presents information into a very captive format from a classroom scenario. The project is named as “The Authentic use of Laptops in Classrooms”. The project has two parts one is a video uploaded to YouTube and another is a Microsoft power point presentation consisting of nine slides.
The YouTube video shows that in a classroom where four students are studying, three are distracted by technology while only one is taking notes in a traditional manner. All three except the one taking notes fail in the exam and the one taking notes gets an A. The paper uses three to four sources for creating the video. Those sources are further analysed in following sections.
As per the information provided in the slide, my classmate uses a reality about laptops in a classroom to present the base premise of the video project. Reality and Knowledge are the key terms that represent any problem in the sociology of knowledge. Knowledge and reality are those terms that are relevant to every person irrespective of their status in society. Berger & Luckmann (1991) discusses this topic in their book “The Social Construction of Reality” and present a thought-provoking understanding of the sociology of reality and knowledge. It is observed in the book that each is responsible for their thoughts, freedom of will and the responsibility of their respective actions.
The same premise applies to the story in the video project, where the three students who choose to use their laptops in the classroom instead of focusing on taking notes, got the responsibility for their actions when they reflected that due their action they got poor grades in the examination. However, one aspect missed in the video is the responsibility of the professor in the classroom delivering the video. The professor must have acted for the students and enabled them to take notes by informing about the results of such a distraction in class or by disallowing the use of laptops in the class and thereby helping his students.
Another aspect of the video is a disconnect present between students in the classroom and their teacher. It was evident that due to technology three of four students had been disconnected with their current environment. A similar case is presented in the book “The Big Disconnect” by the authors Steiner-Adair & Barker (2013) where they talk about the big disconnect between the wisdom of traditional practices and the wonder of technology. A student’s attention is clouded due to technology. Technology has impacted all aspects of our lives, be it at home at the dinner table or in the classroom. Children and adults alike are constantly connected to iPas, Smartphones and Facebook. These activities lower the attention span and increase the disconnect with the present environment and happenings are it family time or study time. There has been a widespread impact due to a rise in Social media, accessibility to the internet and erasing of boundaries that protected children from the unpleasant facet of the adult life (Steiner-Adair & Barker, 2013).
The disconnect that has grown between parents and children due to technology and its application has also grown in classrooms between the teachers and students. The video project presents a similar case which is very critical in the current scenario in the digital world and its dependency is increasing by each passing day. More than dependency it has become a habit, an addiction that is impacting all the aspects of human life, including relationships, career, life and studies. Three students realize their mistakes and lament it on their habit of using the laptop while in the classroom but it was too late as results were out and their grades were given to them by the professor.
The project also creates a discourse by analysing the visual images and text in the video representing the thoughts and actions of the students. A discourse analysis is the psychoanalysis approach to the text, visual images and the social construction based on their differences. Rose (2012), presents the psychoanalysis of social differences that arises because of race and class and the psychic and visual construction of those differences.
The psychoanalytic approach that considers human subjects and detailed historical studies from periods in western history reveals the human science revolution including the development of medicine, sociology and sexuality. The theoretical arguments and thoughts of humans are based on various thinking paradigms. The video presents such a discourse of textual and non-verbal communication through the actions of students impacting their results which is the final grades. Rose (2012), also presents an understanding of the power associated with institutions and related technologies. Each of the power associated with the institution or an individual of the use of any discourse whether textual or visual, has its consequences and that institution or individual must be responsible for the resulting consequences.
What the video presents is an excellent representation of discourse Analysis I and Analysis II as given by Rose. The laptop’s use in classroom presents such a discourse where text and visual images create distractions in the minds of the three students who were sitting in the classroom but not listening to their professor. The student taking notes was creating a text discourse. Both the type of actions created results, for the three students getting distracted the results were negative leading to poor grades while for the student taking notes, it was positive resulting in a high grade.
References
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1991). The social construction of reality:
A treatise in the sociology of knowledge (No. 10). Penguin UK.
Rose, G. (2012). Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with
visual materials. Sage.
Steiner-Adair, C., & Barker, T. H. (2013). The big disconnect: Protecting childhood
and family relationships in the digital age. Harper Business.
