Technology

My electricity went out the other evening around 7:15 pm.  No one knew what happened and it only effected 87 households in my neighborhood. I panicked!   What was I going to do without the TV, IPhone (which was about drained of power), and internet??!!  I sat outside for a while, until it got dark.  I actually listened to the birds and the sounds of the neighbors.  Then, when it got dark, I went to bed.  'What else was there to do?', I thought.  How quickly I have forgotten what it was like before the internet and smart phone.

Imagine telling a high-schooler who has never known what it was like to go outside and play flashlight tag,catch fireflies, or actually use their imagination to entertain themselves to turn off their electronics for 7 hours a day and listen to someone lecture.  LET THEM USE THEIR TECHNOLOGY!!  Now, I'm not saying that all students should be given unfettered access to the open internet without filters in school (or home for that matter).  But let them use what they know.  No longer are the days where you have to go to the library to do research.  Gone is the phrase "get a dictionary" when trying to find the correct spelling of a word.  Harness how smart these kids are and let them use their tools they are accustom to.  “It’s very serious, because the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” (Prensky, 2001).  A digital immigrate is someone who has not embraced the technology that is available to them and incorporated that technology into their daily living.  

We have a rule at our schools:  No electronics allowed.  You want to know what I think of that rule?  Control-Alt-Delete.  I simply ignore it.  It's important for our students to learn how to use technology for educational growth, instead of just..."OMG, did u c what she rote on FB?".  You get my point.

TIPS:

1.  Let them use what they know.

2.  Learn what it is they know.  They can teach you fantastic things with this technology that you would rarely learn on your own.

3.  Don't be scared of it.