RMP A

PROPOSAL

Proposed Topic - The effects of technology in education on learning and teaching

Personal Stake - Distance learning during the Zoom year presented the most difficulty I ever experienced academically, so I want to see the general effectiveness of technology on the average student.

Questions -

Jedidah Isler’s TED talk “The Untapped Genius That Could Change Science for the Better” argues that those who exist at intersections of race and gender are best fit to explore intersections of scientific research. Delivered in August of 2015, Isler begins by discussing the importance of intersectionality, arguing that intersectionality provides a different sense of “...freedom in that in-between, freedom to create from the indefiniteness of not-quite-here, not-quite-there, a new self-definition” (00:00:32-00:00:43).

The approach towards saving our planet may be simpler than we imagined. In The Washington Post article “Why You Should Tell Your Children about Vanishing Fireflies,” published in August 2023, Michael Coren argues that the key to restoring an ecosystem lies within looking back and understanding where an environment started, not simply what we perceive in the present. Coren, a climate activist and columnist at The Washington Post, has spent upwards of two decades covering the climate crisis and advocating for environmental conservation (Coren).

News outlet NBC reported that in 2019, a self-driving Tesla model S ran a red light and crashed into a Honda Civic killing both of its passengers. The driver of the Tesla was driving at high speeds using the autopilot feature, which allows for semi-autonomous driving (Burke). While the term “semi-autonomous” suggests that the driver still should have been paying attention to the road, the vehicle’s program did not follow a quite obvious traffic signal. Nevertheless, the driver was charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Audience Analysis: My audience for this assignment is my peers at UMCP. In the context of a diverse and academically minded college campus, the majority of my readers will already have a foundational understanding of what cultural appropriation is, and often, the term carries negative connotations. The degree to which our community is attuned to this issue varies, and emotional responses may vary as well. As I explored this topic, I aimed to explore multiple perspectives and arguments regarding cultural appropriation in the realm of fashion.

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In “Nuns fret not at their Convent’s narrow room,” William Wordsworth writes of the freedom found within voluntary confinement. He follows this line of reasoning to explain that artistic possibilities are offered within the confines of the sonnet—the form of “Nuns fret not.” Nearly 150 years later, Gwendolyn Brooks writes of a different kind of confinement, one which is imposed. In her poem “kitchenette building,” Brooks details how the African-American families who were forced into tiny apartments—kitchenette buildings—in the 1940s lost the ability to dream.

Milton’s Satan of Paradise Lost is a tortured character, wanting to experience good, but unable to escape the Hell that permeates his environment and his mind. As a living justification for the suffering and dissent of those who have fissured from Christian dogma, the base assumption within the narrative that this dogma is legitimate creates circular reasoning as to the upholding of God and the discrediting of the opinions of blasphemers.

Sylvia Plath explores mental illness in her poetry collection, Ariel, and novel, The Bell Jar, though the different literary forms of each affect her representations of the nuances of depression and anxiety. Plath’s poetry style is confessional, and so, she wrote to understand her own mind, stating in a 1962 radio interview: “I don't think I could live without [writing poetry]. It's like water or bread, or something absolutely essential to me. I find myself absolutely fulfilled when I have written a poem when I'm writing one” (Plath).