Friday, April 17, 2009

Teaching and Technology

It's everywhere.  We can't escape it.  It's technology from the black lagoon.  Ok, well, maybe it's not all bad.  What am I saying? I subscribe to it as much as the next person, with my daily texting, facebooking, and even twittering. 
But I can't help but be slightly unnerved at the enormity of this new techno-culture.  With people, young and not-so-young, inserting acronyms into their daily conversations ("o.m.g. that is such a cute shirt!") it makes me a bit nostalgic for the times when the computer was a novelty... a once-daily connection to the not-quite-as-huge social network of emails and, perhaps, message boards.  Now--and I include myself in this shift--it's a never-ending, always wired, continual feed of news and tidbits into anyone and anything we could ever imagine.  Everything is instant and at-hand.  
In the grad-school world of education, we often discuss how this is, or is going to affect our classrooms.  It already has, to some degree. With children being constantly stimulated with games, computers, phones, and movies, it's tricky to find ways to engage them in class.  
As much as it excites me that so many school here in Alachua County have smart-boards in every classroom, I'm also a bit nervous for what this means for myself as a teacher in the twenty-first century.  I already feel farther behind than many, when I once felt as if I was keeping up with the changing times.  

I didn't mean to go off on such a tangent... I have papers to write!  But this stemmed from a couple of articles that NCTE brought to my attention.  
Apparently Blogger isn't up on the times. Otherwise they would know not to insert that dashed, red line under the word, "texting".