ETEC 531 Cultural and New Media Studies Dr. Stephen Petrina and Dr. Franc Feng Media Production #2 I Am a Cyborg Teacher Produced by Jill French

I rely on technology all of the time…. …to write …to demonstrate …to listen…to model

I am discovering, as I enter my final season of teaching, that I am a cyborg teacher! …...

During my first season, as a student teacher, I was young and naïve. I thought…. …“I can reach every single child” …“I am a natural-born teacher” ……

During my second (pre-family) season, I thought… “my skill and knowledge is all within me and all that I need” …..

During my third (post-children) season, I was wiser, humbler, but still naïve. I thought…. “just having children use technology helps them learn” …..

Now, as I enter my final season, I see that I do not learn and teach alone …I am part of a system …I am interconnected and heavily reliant on technology …I am a cyborg teacher…

Not this type of cyborg… or this… or this.

…but this type of cyborg, a ‘natural-born’ cyborg…

You cannot see my connection to technology, ….nor the dynamic interaction between myself and technology, …....

but, I am part of a larger system of ideas and consciousness, distributed cognition (Petrina, n.d.). In this system, technology……….……

… surrounds me, …in the library …in the classroom …in my home

…it enhances my learning and teaching…. …with books …with visual aids …with real pictures …with organizing tools

….it mediates my learning and teaching… …through books …through multimedia …through representations …through a ‘new’ look

…it automates my learning and teaching …. …by ‘sensing’ my presence …by blurring the lines between real and created

…it distributes my learning and teaching …. …through cyberspace …through writings …through visual memories

…and finally, it embodies my learning and teaching. I am programmed to…. … react to a fire-alarm…answer a telephone …use a machine to withdraw money …control traffic lights

But, what does it mean to be a cyborg? It means…. …” we program and are programmed…” (Petrina, n.d.) …we have the “ability to enter into deep and complex relationships …with nonbiological constructs, props, and aids” (Clark, 2004, ¶ 7) …….

…the “relationship between people and technology [is] so intimate that it’s no longer possible to tell where we end and machines begin” (Kunzru, 1997, ¶ 7) ……

As cyborgs, we are… …”ready to merge our mental activities with the operations of pen, paper, and electronics, …able to understand the world as we do” (Clark, 2004, ¶ 9)

As a cyborg teacher, I… co-exist and co-evolve with the technologies around me to scaffold my students’ learning

Their tacit learning… as they develop ‘co-operative skills’ through play

Their augmented learning… …as they view a video about mammals

Their mediated learning… …as we explore literature together

Their automated learning… …as they learn to trigger the walk sign

Their distributed learning… …as they upload weather data to a provincial research project

Their cyborgenic learning… …as they flip on the computer to check their

“if we really want to know ourselves we increasingly have to know our technologies, know thyself, know thy technologies" (Clark, 2004, ¶57). I am a better teacher because I am a cyborg teacher! ……..

Audio and Images  Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (1990). Vivaldi: The Four Seasons: Winter II Largo & III Allegro (EMI Digital CD T). Columbia House.  Alltheweb Images (2005). Overture Service, Inc.

Clark, A. (2004). Natural-Born Cyborgs. Retrieved June 13, 2005 from ome ome ome Kunzru, H. (1997). You Are Cyborg. Retrieved June 15, 2005 from Petrina, S. (n.d.). Agency, Embodiment, Technology and Determinism. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from References