Lessons Learned

Educating the Net Generation: How is it possible that students from ages 18-20 years of age use 20 hours of technology every single day? There are only 24 hours in a day, it seems so outrageous that we are plugged into technology for the majority of our lives. I'm 25, I wasn't born in the 50's or anything, and I feel like I'm pretty up to date with a lot of today's technology in the general sense. I can't imagine using technology for that many hours in the day. What about playing sports? Hanging out with friends and family in a face to face situation? Accumulating skills that have nothing to do with any type of keyboard? It also mentioned that 80% of students use it on a daily basis. This is definitely the technology era and we either get to embrace it or fall behind.

Why Integrate: "New tech tools for visualizing and modeling, especially in the sciences, offer students ways to experiment and observe phenomenon and to view results in graphic ways that aid in understanding.. students are more likely to stay engaged and on task, reducing behavioral problems in the classroom." It's an interesting perspective to look at it through these eyes- that viewing results in graphic ways can aid understanding for students. I guess I wonder if that's because they don't know anything else, and they have to see things graphically to actually uderstand it, or if it's necessary? Our parents didn't have to every little thing graphically to understand it. They read it in a book and they learned what they needed to know. It's just an interesting way to look at things.

21st Century Skills: This short acritcle gave an interesting perspective on the actual skills that are being developed as students use technology in learning. This particular quote stood out to me... "They're learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page." It's true, that students who's learning is adapted digitally will learn a certain part of life that would otherwise not be exposed to them so early on. "Managing a public identity" - could easily come through Facebook at the age of 12. I'm not sure that I agree, however, about "learn to get along with others" - maybe so. But not in person. It's one thing to say that you have 500 friends online. But it's another thing to say that you have close relationships in real life, where people meet face to face and share and touch and interact one on one. There are just so many ways to look at it.

Online Teens are Learning Skills: In a similar perspective, this article represented media from a perspective of all of the benefits that can come from all of these many hours spent online. It seems so strange, however, that anyone would assume that the basically unlimited time that students spend using technology isn't at all a waste of time. I can buy that certainly some skills are being learned, as mentioned in the previoius article. But there are also a lot of things that are absolutely pointless that we do online. They mentioned that some parents like to limit the time that students spend on those things and I can't imagine what it would be like to have unlimited access, with nobody watching how much time you spend watching TV, or playing games on the internet. Because while some skills may be getting enhanced, so many skills are being left behind. What about running? Physical activity? It's not all about the "global" world, it's also about being happy, healthy people.

The New WWW: One of the quotes that I really liked from this article that to me, seems to sum up a portion of it, reads, "Children believe that getting whatever they want will make them happy. As adults, we know otherwise." The article talks about instant gratification and I really like reading it. Children these days do feel that everything they want is at their fingertips, and it becomes very problematic for some if they don't get it. I'm not much older than the students in high school but I can see how that "instant gratification" could yield some problems down the road. Life isn't about getting what you want all the time. The article goes on to say that child stars, who truly are given everything they want when they want it, for the most part ends up causing huge trials for these people down the road. If we are going to provide technology and sort of instant, constant media for our children, then it must be meaningful. We can't just give them endless resources to do absolutely anything they can imagine and expect that they'll guide themselves appropriately. They need morals, discipline, and they need to be able to recognize technology as a tool - not as a relationship.

Engaged Students: This was probably my favorite of the videos/articles. I feel like it opened my eyes, even if only for a few moments, to how our world is changing so quickly. From talking about India and China, becoming the largest English Speaking countries in the world, to the fact that 1,000 words are added to our dictionaries every single month, it shows that the world as we have known it will drastically transfigure between our generation and the next. It talked about "Instant Information" and multimedia being the world that they live in, and contrasted today's classroom to the classroom that I grew up in, especially in elementary school. No matter what we think, or how we resist technology, if we don't give it to them in the classroom, they will learn it at home. So a strong part of me thinks that we need to be actively involved in the technology world if we are going to access the very nature of our students' learning.

Games: This was yet another perspective on the skills that are potentiall gained from the active use of technology. It talked about a student who was very introverted, and never participated in class. Once the teacher opened up his classroom to online networking, she became one of the most active students within the classroom. She commented constantly and posted opinions about whatever was on the subject board. Perhaps without that resource, she would have never felt comfortable expressing herself. It talks about networking, and all of the many opportunities that the internet gives students to get to know people globally, and to network within those online communities. Given these perspectives does help me to understand that technology for our children isn't necessarily the scariest thing to imagine, or a black hole of pointless information that we are spoon feeding our children. There are, perhaps, with guidance, many quality positive things that can come from the use of modern technology, even in our very own homes and classrooms.