The History

The Heritage 47 blog was created in April, 2007 (4-7) as a new venue to track Heritage High School’s annual participation in Tech Turnoff week. Tech Turnoff week is part of Mr. D’s media literacy unit at Heritage High.  Mr. D is an English teacher and he couples this unit with Huxley’s sci-fi novel, Brave New World.  Mr. D also invites the rest of the school and community to participate in the Tech Turnoff.

Heritage High School is located in Littleton, Colorado, USA.

The Assignment, April 24-May 4, 2009

For the next ten days I am asking you to refrain from using many of the newer technologies that have become a part of your everyday life (see the list below). Just as surely as these technologies have become a part of your everyday life, so they have transformed it too. But is this transformation good, in all cases? Or might it be for the worse in certain ways?

This experiment is meant to ask and answer such questions for ourselves. Somewhat ironically, I am asking you to record your reactions to this assignment on a weblog (or blog) I have designed for this unit (directions follow).

For ten days, I want you to go without:

• TV (including video games and movies over the VCR or DVD)
• Movies (at the theater)
• Computer (not including school-related programs, like Word Processor)
• Internet (not including our class blog, of course)
• Portable Video Games (like Gameboy or cell phone games)
• Ipods and MP3 Players (or discmans and walkmans, if they still exist)
• Text Messaging

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The Blog Assignments:

Every school day, I will write an initial post and then I want you to comment on it.

To do this, you type in the address: http://heritage47.wordpress.com and hit return. You should see the header, “Mr. D’s Class Blog,” followed “About Tech Turn-off”. To the right there is a picture with a link underneath it: “Tech Turnoff 2009 Category.” Click that link and that will take you to the daily assignment I have posted.

To respond to the assignment, simply press the “comments” link below it. A textbox under the words “Leave a Reply” should appear.

So that I know who is writing each comment, you will need to write your first name, the first letter of your last name and your class period. For example, if John Doe were in my 7^th period, he would write his name as: JohnD7.  Do not fill in either of the other two fields: the email address or website.

The first post or prompt will be up by Sunday, where you can react to your first two days of the turnoff. Feel free to write more than an answer to my prompt. You can respond to other students’ responses, or just write anything you want. I will moderate the blog, so no comment will post that hasn’t been checked by me first. Here are some questions you might consider: What are you doing instead? What is difficult? Frustrating? Exciting? (By the way, your family is welcome to join us. The turnoff will be easier for you if they do, I bet.)