Hello, Mr. Attention Grabber,

It appears that my preceding post seems to endorse an idea that Alverman has in the second chapter of his book, Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World. Right from the get-go, Alverman solicits this rhetorical question:

“1. What significance do digital technologies have for paying, attracting, and maintaining attention” (Alverman, 20)?"

Without analyzing the rest of the chapter I unerringly knew what Alverman was going to show me. The significance is enormous! Just think! I took a mental trip back into my middle school career briefly, and easily remembered one technology that helped me and my fellow students at the time pay attention. If it weren’t for Math Blaster…what would we have done!

I understand that this is not pioneering news. Keeping the students’ attention has always been the key to educating them, hasn’t it? I guess this just reiterates the fact that maybe video games (digital technology in general) will keep the attention of students.

I know that’s a far-cry, but I’m a still thoroughly interested in how beneficial this could be.

It’s not even just video games. I have video games, but I don’t play them often. I have cousins who do nothing but. If I were to speculate as to one technology that would change the future and dominate the classroom, I wouldn’t even pick video games. I would say it’s the iPod (for music and video reasons). Music is a very important part of people’s lives. It’s something that everyone can relate to. There are very few people, although there are some (my dad), who can actually say, with a straight face, that they don’t truly listen to music. If we, as educators, could find a way to integrate popular music and the iPod into classrooms, I would guess that we would have the attention of the students.

How to do this is beyond me, but I guess it all revolves back to what Alverman was talking about. I almost feel as if we are on the verge of something. I just hope it is what we are learning in ENG 506.