Teaching Literature with the use of IT

There was a lesson in the previous week where my supervising teacher had no plans for the class except for them to read Roald Dahl's Matilda (their upcoming term's lit text). Of course most of the kids couldn't concentrate on doing that for a straight hour, while some read it already. For the second period, she brought in her laptop and showed them some random powerpoint slides with satellite photos, pictures of her niece studying overseas and jokes in emails circulated around.

It was amazing - the kids all sat up straight in attention, as though expecting fireworks to burst out of the screen anytime. They even waited quietly and patiently for content to download onto the computer. And when the pictures showed, all were silent and in awe of the pictures shown, though the images had nothing to do at all with the content or their own lives or interests. The power of screen images on the modern child.

But there's no way I'm going touch IT to teach content for literature. I might use it as an energizer or to calm down the class after the lesson, or as a diversion or distraction or to make an interesting opening for a topic. I am not, however, ever going to depend on the computer screen to show them what literature is. These kids are getting too mesmerized by the screen as it is, and it is about time teachers try to convert them into book lovers instead. It makes no sense for teachers to draw them to books and its histories by using IT to impress them.