Blog No. 1: Me & The Media

Welcome to Tuesday's with Melanie! As an English Literature Major, I adore the humanities. Currently the 21st-century poses a lot of different challenges to the humanities and arts. However, firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I am a California native, growing up in the San Fernando Valley. I grew up around the arts. My parents were very much lovers of the humanities. Looking back at my childhood, I recall fond memories of days at the theatre, art museums, reading literature, and exposure to all types of music. While I consider myself a lover of many things, I am obsessed with my orange cat. I have an orange cat named Morrison, named after Jim Morrison the lead singer of The Doors.


Circling back to the notion of media in education, teaching and technology in the modern day go hand in hand. I don’t personally aspire to be a teacher, but I have so much appreciation for what my personal high school teachers and my college professors have taught me. I have had the privilege of having wonderful professors throughout my academic career, both domestically and internationally. Each having their own unique perspective and approach to the media. One thing, however, that can not be denied is how the media has taken the world by storm. While I personally think that there is a beauty in holding true to tradition, I also do feel that it’s a necessity to embrace change. Therefore, I think it’s truly essential in the current day and age to be immersive with media in regards to academics.


Technology is present within this generation and will continue to be present within the next. Therefore, it’s essential that we introduce students to technology in a positive manner and teach them the good and bad qualities of it. It’s essential for children to be allowed autonomy, especially young students. Curriculum should allow students to freely think and feel free to make their own choices. If we continuously tell students that something is bad or that they should not do something, it relinquishes their autonomy and drives them to do such things even further. Therefore, I think it’s essential that we introduce technology early in a child’s academic career in positive ways. Whether it be online magazines, forums that talk about books, or etc. We should teach students not to fear the world wide web, but acknowledge that there are good and bad qualities of it. It allows the search of information and allows us greater public access to people and places that are not in our reach, but to be wary of certain aspects that come within it. If we teach students to respect the good and bad of technology early on, they can choose to make better practices later on.


I have seen effective methods of technology introduced into elementary schools and have it done successfully. However, I think it’s important to allow children to feel and acknowledge their autonomy of choice. Therefore, if we teach them both good and bad qualities of using technology, they’re allowed to make their own choice, which is crucial to their growth and development as people.

Comments

  1. Sean GholamiJanuary 25, 2025 at 10:54 PM

    Hey Melanie! First off, I too am a California native, and while my parents weren't big fans of the arts, I ended up loving media and literature because of my unrestrained internet access. I agree with your point of embracing change, as we can't stick to paper and pencils forever, and technology needs to be utilized, not frowned upon and discouraged. However, when it comes to letting students feel free, there is some nuance in the discussion that we can't let students have too much freedom because, lets face it, students don't want to be in school, and will do anything to take their mind off the course at hand. It is important that students know how to properly utilize the internet, but at the same time, it's ill advised to give middle and high schoolers untapped internet access. We need to acknowledge the pros and the cons, and instead of giving students IPads and calling that an education facility needs to integrate technology into their lessons, without student interference.

    P.S. Your cat is very cute :>

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