Ok, so a few weeks ago I actually for once found something from my technology class interesting.
That class tied as one of my most ridiculous classes of the semester. I swear, can someone who is actually in the elementary ed program decide what classes we really need? Because this is not one of them. As cool as Google Earth is and a couple of the other technologies we've had to do projects with, it's pretty unrealistic to use them in an elementary school class. First because it's too advanced for most of these students to do themselves. Second because teachers hardly have enough time to breathe while managing just the basics in the classroom.
Anyways, we were supposed to read an article entitled Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction and respond to it through a webcam response. I started reading it and was sucked in. Even when I saw that it was 6 pages I wasn't put out.
Technology is constantly praised and condemned. This article does nothing different. There are good things said as well as well as some things shared that scare me a lot.
One of its main points is how technology is such a distraction to students these days. And it's obvious. As I read this article I was sitting in the McKay computer lab. Looking around I could immediately see one girl watching some strange Asian movie, with subtitles and all. Another guy was looking up sports statistics after he'd finished watching old BYU v. Utah game clips. There were probably at least five people who had facebook up in one of their tabs. I'm sure people were youtubing and blogging and doing other such things. I've caught people watching shows like "Glee" and even "The Secret Life of an American Teenager." So here there is a huge lab with about 50 iMacs in it, and a good percentage of the people are not actually using the technology in the way it is intended in a learning environment like this. We have all this amazing technology at our fingertips and we're using it for evil! Okay, evil is a bit of an exaggeration, but we could be using it in better ways.
So the article really got me thinking about this. I mean, it talked about one kid who would play at least six hours of video games every day which meant he had to do his homework in the bathroom before school. What?? Seriously? That right there is a problem, and a big one. What parents really think that it's alright for their children to be glued to a screen shooting people's heads off for that long? It makes me a little bit sick.
That's where the big question comes though: Where is the balance between using technology productively and for some entertainment without letting it get out of hand?
I think the answer is the same for any other addiction: when it's controlling your life.
The second big point of the article was about using technology in schools. It is such a huge part of today's world, why not use it in schools? It will get kids interested in things. I think that's the biggest problem with schools today. Motivation. Why should kids be excited to do geometry when their teacher tells them that the only real-life application is if they become a professional billiards player? (That's a true story, by the way.) That's what it's all about, teachers: real-life application. How is what you're teaching your students actually going to affect their lives? How could it affect their future vocation? Hello...use technology! Ok, I won't go off on my motivation soapbox today.
So, I don't really know what point I was trying to make today. I guess just that we should appreciate all of the technology that we have today and try not to abuse it in the ways that we do. I know that it's something that I need to work on. There's just so many other productive things we can do besides sit on facebook. Goal: use technology for good.
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