Before I moved to Ohio to pursue my studies at Bowling Green State University, I taught as an adjunct instructor at Indiana University South Bend and the South Bend and Elkhart campuses of Indiana Institute of Technology (Indiana Tech). Both schools were diverse in their own ways; IU South Bend particularly catered to non-traditional students. IU South Bend was an "in-between" school in the South Bend area - it wasn't as competitive (or expensive) as the University of Notre Dame and it wasn't a community college like Ivy Tech. Because of this, the university brought in many older adults that were looking to pursue their education later in life. It wasn't unusual for me to have several students in my classes that were the same age as my parents (or older).
Indiana Tech had a (somewhat) different demographic. The school offered classes that were five weeks long and ran in the evenings so as to be accessible to those with full-time jobs and/or family responsibilities. The school was very small and non-traditional and was much more affordable than a typical university. The majority of the students in my classes were African American, blue collar workers with families to care for and tough jobs that exhausted them mentally and physically.
I was thinking of these teaching experiences as I was going through the readings for this week. Most of my non-traditional students at IU South Bend did not have the same computer capabilities as my college-aged students, and I often struggled with how to reconcile helping the older students while also helping the college-aged students expand on their "advanced" computer knowledge. While Bowen focuses on a discussion of the elderly in her article, I think her main points apply to my teaching experiences, as well. As Bowen states, "It is a mistake to identify elders [or older adults] who do not use Web 2.0 technologies, or at least not in expected or conventional ways, as somehow failing or digitally illiterate. Even online activity that by now seems mundane, such as writing an email or sharing photos, not only counts as digital literacy practice but can also teach us about literate practices that extend beyond youth-centered ideologies" (588). This is a point that I could have used in my classroom setting at IU South Bend; just because an older individual doesn't use/understand the "youth-centered" technologies of modern society (ex. social media apps) doesn't mean that the knowledge they do possess is useless or obsolete. Young people have as much (or more) to learn from older generations as older adults do from youth.
Similarly, Banks' article helped me to see the importance in valuing a person's cultural dialect while also teaching them how to write effectively. I was especially interested in the following statement: "At this moment...anyone still attempting to argue that Ebonics is a problem for black students or that it is somehow connected to a lack of intelligence or lack of desire to achieve is about as useful as a Betamax video cassette player, and it's time for those folks to be retired" (15). At Indiana Tech, I struggled with how to value the rich cultural background present in this dialect with my African American students while also fulfilling my duties as a composition instructor (to teach proper "Standard Written English"). Giving value to a student's cultural background is so important, but it can also conflict with the goals of a particular course. This is something I still haven't completely sorted out, but I do think both a student's background and the goals of a class can converge in a way that promotes learning and growth for both the student and the instructor.
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| It's great that we live in a time where diversity is celebrated! Image credit: annenberglab.com |
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