Boxes?!?

Sorry this is a bit tardy (and probably disjointed); I was lost in the west stacks of the library and lost track of time. This is of course after feeling a bit lost last night in the readings for this week. The idea of boxes is a bit much for me to grasp at this point in the semester (too much Old English and such). However, I wonder if the problem arises more out of technology than the concept. I feel a bit unsure of technology still, since it was not a big part of my earlier education. I am hesitant to use new technologies (as many of you know I had trouble even with the wiki). Of course, I found the reading in the chapter in Wysoki's book to be a bit intimidating even without the technology. I couldn't quite get used to the structure of the text itself. It took me twice as long to read as a regular chapter because I had to adapt to the random boldness and odd shapes of text. It made me feel sympathy for my students, though, who also have to adapt to unfamiliar readings. However, I don't think the purpose of boxes should be to make a difficult task even more difficult simply because it is artful and "new." My question is how much new technology and how many new approaches should we even incorporate into our classes? Isn't it possible to overwhelm students with these new techniques? I don't want to intimidate them or overwhelm them. Does anybody else feel this way?

On a side note, I couldn't help but think about the movie White Oleander as I read. Isn't this box idea what the daughter does at the end?

I also wanted to go back to last week's readings because I never updated what bullet point I disagreed with in C/D. I wondered about the idea of comparing student progress openly. I feel this is not only a violation of FERPA, but also demeans the student to whom you are speaking. I never openly compare work. Any thoughts?