Paying Attention to Technology: Writing Technology Autobiographies

As citizens of a highly technological culture, our students see (and often use) technologies as a daily experience. Because of their proliferation, these technologies become are often taken for granted and unexplored. This lesson plan asks students to pay attention to these technologies explicitly. In this activity, students brainstorm lists of their interactions with technology, map these interactions graphically, and then compose narratives of their most significant interactions with technology. By writing these technology autobiographies, students explore what their stories reveal about why we use the technologies we do when we do. —Paying Attention to Technology: Writing Technology Autobiographies  (Read Write Think)

I’ve got an early in-class assignment in my “Writing for the Internet” class in which I ask students to estimate the date when various technological innovations were invented (such as the CD-ROM, the mouse, the ball-point pen, etc.).

I might modify that assignment to include some elements of this one.

Via Doctor Daisy .