Cellphones

Marshall McLuhan talked about the telephone being an extension of one's ear (media theory).

I sometimes wonder that with the cell or mobile phone, whether it would be considered an extension of one's arm, or one's eyes, or one's ears, or one's whole being?!!!

I have had 3 cellphones over the past 6 years, and I currently do not have one. I really LOVE not having a cellphone.

I'm not contactable at any time of the day. I have more privacy. I no longer get a 'fright' when a text comes through or a phone call.

It's liberating to NOT have a cellphone! I am glad it is not an extension of my body!

The only reason I think I need a cellphone is for safety, so if I need that, I'll use my husband's cellphone.

I'm amazed at how some people so totally rely on a cellphone and live for texting (SMS), phoning, video, etc.

I prefer email and instant chat/messaging, but still, I don't live for it.

Childless by choice

From the President of the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women - Charlene Lutes
May 2007 newsletter excerpt

Not all motherhood and apple pie?

In yesterday’s (2/5/07) New Zealand Herald I read an article entitled ‘Motherhood—a career with vacancies’. A longitudinal study in the UK of people born in 1970 found that 40 percent of graduate women are childless at 35 and that a third of female university graduates will never have children. Several reasons were cited: the need to concentrate on or get established in a career, economic pressures, such as student debt and the high cost of establishing a home, the lack of a suitable partner who wants to have children, unequal sharing of household responsibilities, and the lack of a desire for children. It is a sign of progress that women who have no desire for children can now have a fulfilling and interesting life without them, a situation very different from the 19th century. Some women, who would otherwise have enjoyed a family, feel more committed to a career, for example, in politics and choose to remain childless.

Over the past decade there have been an increasing number of journalistic essays of this kind, which focus on negative personal and social consequences of women’s increasing economic and professional status. Alison Wolf, Professor of Management and Professional Development, King's College London, whose article Working Girls inspired and partially named a resolution adopted by the recent NZFGW Conference, deplores a perceived loss of female solidarity and altruism that is attributed to women’s desire for career success. Articles like the one in the Herald focus on the decreased birth rate among educated women. Politicians and economists worry about the consequences of negative population growth. Sometimes I fear that we may be in the early stages of a backlash against women’s workforce participation similar to that after World War II.

In an overpopulated world, is it a bad thing for women to have fewer children? While pundits worry at length about who will provide pensions for our ageing population, few talk about the economic and environmental costs of an ever-increasing population. Although some economic and social adjustments will be necessary as the age structure of populations change, those adjustments are minor compared with the changes that we will have to make in our lives if the experts on climate change are right. To the extent that we can stem population growth, the task of preserving on our planet an environment in which humans can live is made less difficult. Educated women who have freedom of reproductive choice tend, on average, to have fewer children than those who are not free to choose. Educating and empowering women is, therefore, one way toward sustainable lifestyles.

What we need to work towards is real choice for women. As far as biology permits, women should have the same opportunities for meaningful participation in all aspects of society, including paid work and family life, as men do. That means publicising and recognising women who combine successful careers and family life, including some studies of how they manage to do it.

My first research grant

Today, I was awarded $2000 for a 'Faculty Starter Grant' to conduct a literature review on the areas of formal learning, informal learning, and the links between the two, as well as areas of educational technology that focus on the development of technological expertise (and are not positivist and quantitative studies).

This is the beginning of the official project titled, 'Sociological theorizing of teenager technological expertise', which is an extension of my PhD, both in breadth, and in through the ways I am gathering data (a proposed online website/database).

"I've only got one lecture that day"

"so that's why I didn't go to the lecture". While it is unlikely that lectures and tutorials will ever be mandated, obviously a student is not valuing a lecture by not attending. Financially, of course, it's cheaper to stay home, and easier to do.

I would like to say that if education is what one wants, and if that includes 'convenient and comfortable' as the adjectives to describe this education, perhaps one should enrol in an online course. (I did - suited me well!)

By attending lectures one is learning the following: "punctuality, intellectual discipline, community loyalty and personal responsibility" (Brabazon, 2002, p. 122).

Let's go back to the 'convenience' aspect. Tara Brabazon says, "The delights of life are not convenient. Why should the passions of education be any different? The enthusiasm and excitement of the classroom disrupts lives, promoting ruthless debates between partners, friends and parents. It should be exciting, distracting and highly inopportune" (Brabazon, 2002, p. 121). However, all of this takes intellectual discipline on the part of students, for them to attend and to be involved.

Brabazon maintains that, “Education is not predictable or efficient. It is the unproductive searches, the confusions, difficulties and frustrations that allow students to learn and make significant connections. The point of a great teacher is to grant meaning and context to the hard work, drudgery, disappointment and repetition that is required of scholarship” (2002, p. 122).

I do my best to create lectures and tutorials that involve active learning. I challenge my students with questions, and I expect full participation. I hope that students realize that I am creating sites of learning that are creative, innovative and ones that hopefully help to solve problems. However, I do not promise to keep students comfortable, in the sense of being unchallenged.

I've been recently reading this book (reference below). Thank you Tara Brabazon for inspiring me. I shall endeavour to inspire my students.

Brabazon, T. (2002). Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching. Sydney: UNSW Press.