The Media Spot

Mr. Destefano, a friend and consulting educator for TMS, is at it again with his high school class in Littleton, Colorado: the 2008 Tech Turn-off.

Each year Mr. D asks his class to forgo TV, movies, text messaging, email and other communication technologies for a week, and journal their experiences on their class blog. The class always generates thoughtful discussion of the role these technologies play: the ways they help and hinder us; the ways they interconnect and isolate us; the effect they have on our physical, social, and emotional landscape.

A high school English teacher at Heritage High in Colorado ran his annual TV Turnoff on a Wordpress-powered blog through consulting with TMS. The TV Turnoff is part of a media studies unit that Mr. D has incorporated into his high school English class for a few years now, but this was the first time that the students' experiences were documented online.