culture shifts

I really had no idea that so much was going on with IMing (Lewis & Fabos, 2005). The more I read, the more I think it's about these cultural shifts that are pushed by new tools. As with our encountering of "other" cultures in the traditional sense, I think we, as educators, need to remain open to possiblities and the positives that a new cultural form -- like IMing can bring: sense of audience, wordplay, performance of self etc etc -- and not dismiss out of hand what's happening. Also, I felt that Adams (2006) deconstruction of PowerPoint speaks to the acceptance of new forms of culture -- only coming from a cautionary place -- that we shouldn't just uncritically accept technological advances or intrusions -- because it's easy or it's the thing to do. I remember the first time I saw a PP -- was at the end of a grad class for my master's degree. Talk about bells and whistles! It practically innoculated me against PP. The issue of of form over substance is alive and well with PP (sales pitch tool). I thought that the McLuhan (1988) 4 questions of every technology chart (or PP slide !?) on page 397 is very very helpful. I think it's one of those pages I should copy and put on my office office wall in order to facilitate my own eyes-open teaching. Not unlike using quantitative methodology inappropriately for certain kinds of (particularly) educational research, the overuse of PP with the space shuttle Challenger -- is chilling. In both, the real message, the lived connected-to-living-human-beings realilty gets buried.