Hello World!
For my inaugural post, I’d like to tell you a little about myself. As you no doubt know, my name is Christopher Stewart. What many of you are unlikely to know is that I am a 13th year graduating senior here at CSUN. College has been an extremely long and arduous journey for me. I’ve dropped out completely several times. I’ve always been good at school and started my college career studying to be a doctor. It turns out that it’s really hard to be a doctor. After a demoralizing experience in Organic Chemistry, I decided it was not for me. I drifted aimlessly for a while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, but nothing ever stuck. I ended up dropping out and entering the workforce. I’ve worked in many different industries, but mostly manufacturing as well as food service. I’ve slung pizzas, sandwiches, fried chicken, and a lot more. Most notably, I am a former professional Texas-style pitmaster. The rig I used to work on looked like this:

I’ve smoked hundreds of briskets, pork butts, turkey breasts, pastramis, racks of spareribs, pans of burnt ends, smoked sausage (my least favorite thing to make from scratch), and many more tasty treats. However, I knew that I wanted more from life. When I met my wife, she encouraged me to finish my education. I realized that I’d always had a passion for English and writing. I decided to head back to school and pursue a career in teaching. Currently, I’m anxiously waiting to hear back from several Creative Writing MFA programs. If that doesn’t work out, I will teach high school English in the LAUSD in the fall. 

Now, to get to the question at hand, I will give my opinion on the role media technology should play in teaching. Honestly, I hate social media. I think that one day, we’ll look back on it like smoking tobacco. It’s just so bad for mental health and self-worth. I have felt my own attention span plummet as I fell into the habit of doom-scrolling. 

That is not to say that it doesn’t have a place in the classroom. Whether I like it or not, these technologies are here to stay. I would be doing my students a disservice if I didn’t at least give some guidance on the subject and assign projects that encourage my students to take advantage of technology. I do not, however, think that this education should take place with the phone. Many school districts issue Chrome books to their students. I feel like this is the appropriate medium for tech education. 

I am older than most everyone taking this class. The first iPhone debuted while I was in high school. It is hard to remember a time before smartphones now. Another technological revolution that took place while I was in high school was the advent of YouTube and other user-generated content sites. I fondly remember the projects that incorporated it into education. I want this for my students. Short-form content is all the rage today, and I would like to find a way to get it into my lesson plans. I am calling for the use of products like Zigazoo, where we can keep our students safe while also teaching them to navigate the digital world. 

As school districts figure out ways to limit the use of phones during school hours, I believe that things will begin to improve. Obviously, we don’t have control over what happens at home, but if we can let our students be kids from the hours of 9am-3pm, things will get better.

Signing off,

Chris