Read & React 1

Artistic Thinking : Read & React week 1

Topics to ponder on:

What is education’s role in meeting the needs of the 21^st century student?

What are my beliefs and experiences pertaining to/with the iKid/iGeneration? How might my generational grouping impact my understanding of the students I teach?

Wow talk about being a typical "net gen" kid. Currently listening to the front line documentary, the TV is going in the background, and I am reading articles while responding to everything I have taken it .... Guilty!

I have very mixed feelings about technology and what it does/can do for our students.

First of all it was totally fascinating to read about my generation, and at first I thought," I'm  not like that at all" and the more I thought about Rosen's ideas, I realized I very much fit the mold. I tend to think that technology repels me, yet I am in constant use of it. I do try had not to fall to the need for the latest and greatest of technology... But it's really only a matter of time before I typically find myself behind without certain tools.

As I'm listening to these students being tested for their ability to multitask, while I multitask, I know I'm not going to communicate as clearly as I would have liked. I noticed that this summer while away on a 2 week vacation, I really enjoyed being cut off from the technology. We seemed to be more present in the time we were spending and the amazing things we were seeing. At some hotels we had access to the web and we would communicate with those back home. But at most of our hotels we did not have access, and we were more focused on enjoying our time where we were.

As teachers we are highly encouraged to use technology in every way we can. So I do, but have we created a way of disaster for ourselves?  What if that technology just stopped working? OH NOOOOOO! Well folks it happened to me for about 3 class periods last year. All of a sudden everything on my computer disappeared, including that mornings lessons, with 3 power points. These were all new lesson introduction days, and all of my images were from the net, I had no prints to share with my class. Talk about PANIC... Eventually, I was back up and running, but because class must go on no matter what, I did a lot of quick thinking and image searches while teaching to show the visuals needed.  So the point here is, is it really a great idea for us to try to keep up with this "i kid" generations way of technology for everything? The overly busy brained multitaskers are busy enough as is right? Are they really getting everything, or just bits and parts? I'm not saying that I am against trying to learn new technologies to help me keep up with my students in their learning. I'm simply asking what if we tried to help our students slow down and learn to focus on one thing at a time? Then again, they are a very different generation, and maybe this multitasking is exactly what their thriving brains have ordered?

I think it is vital that I step up and do everything in my power to learn new ideas and technologies. Currently my role has been more of a student than a teacher. I have a hard time with the idea that we should teach a child to do something like painting with a computer vs. using the media in person. I guess my problem is that I have felt like,"hey that's cheating" you need to do it the real way... But wait to many of my students this is the real way. They have taken time to learn how to do this on a computer and this is a talent that maybe I have yet to try and grasp, which effects my perspective. If my grandpa were still alive we would probably have this debate about photography. But as I have experienced in my own artistic journey. You should take the adventure of old and new technology!

"Technology is like oxygen" Principal~ from the documentary. What a great point. What if we all cut ourselves off from technology?!?!?!  Life would certainly be different. So I am really struggling with this need for children to do so many things with their computer and phones. To me our students are not great communicators due to a lack of personal "face to face" communicators. Then again, face to face communication being a priority seems to be a thing of the past. Haven't you been out with a group of people to dinner and there is that one person who can't seem to stop checking their phone. They seem to be missing out on the here and now. I think sometimes it is hard for our students to really focus in on one thing and be present in that thought. When they leave school, they breathe in that oxygen of technology. Students are used to going in so many different directions at once, both physically and mentally, that they struggle when asked to stop and focus on that one thought. I wonder what kind of scores our students would get on standardized tests if they were allowed to use their computers to answer? Not to cheat and look up the answers, but to use the different programs to create answers that applied their relevant knowledge in a way that worked for their communication of what they know.... Hmmm.

So enough ranting in many directions at once,I'm resembling the communication and thought processes of my students. There are so many ways these conversations could go. Overall, I know that it is me that needs to stop being set in my simplistic ways and get on board. Besides, it's pretty amazing what my students can teach me with technology. Now it's time to combine our teachings together into one big awesome brain. Their technology and ideas + my techniques = a fantastic team.
Don't you think?