Something in the reading that made me think of how students today are different from when I went to school, (which wasn't that long ago), was "Today's student, nearly everywhere in the world, lives in a technological area in which the internet and Google and text messaging never didn't exist." A lot of the students these days couldn't imagine a world without the internet or text messaging. When I was a kid, we would use the house phone to call our friends and meet up with them on our bikes. We would ride our bikes and our parents always knew where we were. Now, we have texting. Parents can contact their children at all times, you can get a hold of your friends at any time of the day, etc. It is very different, but it has made life a little more convenient.
Google has also changed the lives of our students, and our own. We use Google when we want to know something we are questioning, to do research, to look for recipes, etc. It is something that we use to get quick results. Students don't know how to use the library to do research, they just use the internet. Some of my 4th graders from last year didn't know what an encyclopedia was.
Having the internet has made a huge impact on our lives. We can now talk to people from across the globe, keep in contact with friends or family on Facebook, Skype, and email that have moved away. You can find old friends and reconnect with them. We have internet on our phones. If we want to know something quickly, like what movie is playing at the local theater, you can just look it up. There would have never been online classes that people could take to further their education.
There have also been some "bad sides" to the internet, but isn't there always a "bad side" to everything?
The only downfall, I think, is that some kids are always using technology to "socialize" with their peers. They don't know how to communicate with each other because of texting or instant messaging. They don't know how to do research using books, journals, magazines, etc., because they just use the internet or their phones. Also, with the internet, not everyone uses it as a "good" tool. They use it to cheat on spouses, lure in underage children, etc. They also use text messaging to send inappropriate pictures to (we should all take a lesson from Anthony Weiner on this one).
The internet, Google and texting has improved our lives, but have also hindered them. With something good, something bad always seems to follow.
Great post! As a parent of a teenage daughter with a cell phone and a facebook account I feel that I definitely have to stay on top of my game. I don't worry so much about my daughter, but the other people. As a teacher, working in a school where cell phones are supposed to be turned in to the homeroom teacher every morning, I battle against those "sneaky" kids who keep it and hide out in the bathroom to call a parent, text a friend, etc.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that there are very good benefits. In my school we have not had a new set of encyclopedias since 1996, a lot has changed since then. Nor do we have an extensive library that students could gather other sources from. So in this case, for research, the internet is great. However, I agree that the digital age in which our children are growing up in is creating "unsocial" kids. Kids who cannot carry on a conversation in complex sentences or thoughts because when texting you use simple sentences, simple thought. I also worry with texting that students are losing their ability to write a complex sentences or thought. In my class when I tell them "IDK" is not an answer or you must spell the words "you are" you would have thought that I was asking for their first born. Writing and conversing is definitely a challenge with the invention of texting.