I just finished watching a Frontline special on PBS entitled Digital Nation. It really got me thinking about if technology is a good thing or bad thing for today's society.
One of the first things that really caught my attention was when an older woman said she went on her honeymoon years ago for 2 weeks and had no connection to the outside world. She said that does not happen now a days because people are so connected by technology. What a true statement. People always have some type of phone or internet source with them at all times to stay connected even on vacations, which once were a time to "get away". This was a great transition into talking about schools and how they deal with student's desire and need to multi-task using technology. There was a study conducted in this video and the results showed that students who multitasked and did a few assignments at one time were slower at getting those accomplished than those who did one assignment consecutively. I think that student's multitasking is just going to get worse with the more technology that will become available. Although I believe that the school from the Bronx is trying to engage their students with the use of laptops you could see from the Assistant Principal's interview that the students spent quite a bit of time misusing them by going on websites they shouldn't or taking pictures of themselves.
The one thing that surprised me the most about this video was when the Korean student whose mother felt was addicted to video games and his grades dropped significantly as a result of the gaming had to go to a rehab program for 2 weeks. I was shocked that they even had such programs for people addicted to the computer and computer gaming.
I think the lady from MIT said it best when she said "Technology isn't good or bad, it's powerful." When I finished watching this video I came away from it pondering whether technology still should be incorporated into the classroom? I think there's a lot great educational technological tools that could be utilized effectively in a classroom but as a teacher you need to find those tools that won't overshadow the child's learning goals.
Here is a link to the Digital Nation video if you care to check it out! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/#roundtable
Funny, Kate. I mentioned the same bit regarding being connected during my honeymoon. I said that I made a conscious effort to stay unconnected. However, after I thought about it, I guess I was in fact "slightly" connected. My honeymoon was October 2004, right during the Red Sox playoff run. We watched the games on the only public TV available...in the resort's library. I can tell you that is was the first time I've ever seen a library so out of control! Regardless, I do agree with you in that it is interesting to think that few times, if ever, are we actually unconnected today...I think it's a little sad.
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