My So Called Digital Life by Bob Pletka

As a way to integrate more technology into the curriculums among other reasons, Bob Pletka, the technology director in the Covina – Valley Unified school district, gave 2,000 students from 32 middle and high schools cameras to document their lives in 30 days. During a faculty and administration meeting at the high school Pletka teaches at, the author became distressed when he found out that only a staggering 25 percent of teachers integrate technology into their courses. School is suppose to be the place where students are learning the tools and knowledge necessary to help them function in society, but in an age where technology is incorporated into just about every way of life it was daunting to learn that students (the future) are being educated with stone age techniques in California.

“Our national agenda for education seems mediocre in comparison to previous admirable educational agendas.” – Bob Pletka

The seeds for the My So Called Digital Life project were planted with Pletka’s experience with Rick Smolan’s book America 24/7. Smolan organized 1,000 photographers and asked people across the nation to shoot and send him their photographs so that his team could assess the images and put together a book that told the story of how Smolan experienced America through mixed media. Pletka immediately saw the potential for a more modern and creative way to educate the students in his district. He writes, “As Director of Educational Technology, I work to create opportunities for students to use the digital tools of their world such as iPods, digital cameras, email, computers and instant messaging, to connect youth to knowledge and people who will awaken student potential.” The author put his ideas into action when he teamed up with educators from California State University, Pomona; California Technology Assistance Project, Region 11; and the Covina – Valley Unified school district to create the My So Called Digital Life project. And Apple, Epson First Class and Intelli-Tech were helpful sponsors. Professional photographers were recruited to mentor classes including their teachers in photography, while college students from California State University, Pomona guided teenagers with writing and photography to help students communicate their thoughts, observations and reflections on themselves, family, education and community more efficiently.

“As students encounter gangs, drugs, drive-by shootings and violence, students may feel that finding answers in a textbook, filling out worksheets, and doing test preparations for multiple choice exams may not be enough to adequately prepare them to face the realities of their lives,” Pletka writes. Among other issues, students address their disdain for everything from the doldrums of school life to criticizing the standard approach to learning through repetition and tests to the integration of technology into schools to the worth of the knowledge learned today and the very validity of the institution known as school. The book also gives a window into what life is like for many of the children before and after school and showcases that many students have many more responsibilities than perceived and often times necessary for their age. A chapter also addresses what creative means students relieve stress with after a day of exercising their brain all day at school.

“The school is a whole different community, and is also a part of another bigger community. Being involved with school and learning there helps enrich your mind with things that you’ll use later in life. This small community helps prepare you for a bigger one.” – Jackelynn Ho

Pletka made sure that all of the students were able to communicate with one another through blogs, which each participator kept, providing students with the opportunity share their experience with others. Text, photography and audio were integrated into the blogging as well. Yet the sharing experience didn’t end there. To give students from different backgrounds the opportunity to experience different communities, students were bussed to schools in different parts of California (including inner cities and rural and suburban towns) for week long field trips.

I remember as a student in high school often feeling as if no one was listening when I would voice a concern about my education as I am sure many students still feel today. Parents and administrative figures often shrug off the criticism or concerns of youths about their curriculum because they are younger and have less life experience. But Pletka put it all to well when he discovered after reading close to 1,000 essays and 2,000 blogs that Gary Anderson, an educational researcher from New York University was right, that “Children are experts on their own lives.” My So Called Digital Life gives these children a voice. While reading the student’s work it is easy to fall back into the monotonous feeling of high school life and the images further enforce that. Many children complain as many adults do, but the writing is often well-worded and creative in this book showing the students are operating on a more cerebral plane which in many cases could be compared to the work of college students. One of my favorite pieces weaves song lyrics in to evoke emotion as the author narrates his way through out a school day.

“The most unappealing work is from out of a book. Who wants to spend hours finding answers out of text and just copying it down? It has already been written. Why write it again?” – Kelly Adams

This book is a testament that with more modern and often creative means of education that students will learn more and are able to and more willing to think outside of the box. Although some of the shot are a bit blurry, the images through out the book are very accomplished compositionally. There was so much to be told in every image about each student’s perspective on their live that after finishing the text, I wanted to flip back just so that I could read and see more. This168-page book is such a small piece of what was such a big project. It would be even more moving to see all of the participating student’s work in a big exhibition with the audio included in the blogs. Even an online exhibition would be just as remarkable.

“In the battle for teenage minds and attention, the lure of your own personal soundtrack often wins out.” – Daniel Koval

Pletka quotes Thomas Jefferson in his introduction, “Education prepares students to become fully participating citizens to advance democracy and to prevent tyranny.” It makes you wonder if students from every background had teachers who cared enough to integrate technology like Pletka in to their courses and the curriculum of disadvantaged student was updated, making the quality of our K-12 youth’s education the same, then what kind of citizens and advancements in democracy would our country have in the near future?

“It’s funny how the eye was made by god in the beginning of time and is still more technologically advanced that this CD, or just about anything else ever made.” – Daniel Koval