Technology ~ A New Life Style

I feel so fortunate that my childhood was during the '90s, a decade not only at the end of the 21st century, but also when most households only had one or two desktops, dial-up Internet, CD and MP3 players, and bulky cell phones, which were even rarer than computers. I remember being in 3rd grade and the excitement my peers and I expressed when our teacher told us that we were going to use the Macs to print out our final drafts of our poems. At the time, there were only two computers, but that didn't deter us from making sure our poems printed out neatly. I got to experience the time right before the turn of the century when technology boomed across the world. Most teenagers today have a laptop, cellphone, high-speed Internet, e-readers, and are on the Internet whenever they are free from school or meals. Although the curriculum in the '90s was still mostly traditional, such as having to go to the library to find resources because we couldn't really rely on Internet sites, the turn of the century began to incorporate more technological skills into the classroom. I remember being in middle school and having to take a computer class to work on my typing skills, repeatedly writing letters, such as "dedededekikikiki." Because the advancement in technology progressed drastically during my years in school, I was able to learn quickly the new technologies that were constantly coming out. I am not an avid, "must-have-the-lastest-technology" person (as I am when it comes to collecting books), nor against all technology. Although, all of my current technology knowledge and skills are what I have needed for assignment and work, I am open-minded to learning new technological skills.

So, I think it is very interesting to see how technology (and its progression!) is shaping educational curriculums in today's century. I agree with the video, "Learning to Change - Change to Learn," because technology has become a major part of everyone's, especially students', lives; thus, we need to integrate it into the educational system. It practically runs everyone's lives. There's that saying of "I can't live without my cellphone!" The need to communicate and stay in touch with others is necessary, essential to the core of living and existing. For me, I am pretty sure I can live without a cellphone, but when it comes to possibly making emergency phone calls it is required that I have a cell phone anyway. Because students are constantly near some sort of technology, we as current and future educators, need to change our way of teaching how to develop necessary skills to become successful based on current events, one of which is technological integration in the classroom. Technology has opened gate ways to reaching out to others across the world, not just communities or states like the past. Karen Eini's "Friends and Flags: A Multicultural Learning Project" amazed me because she has created a wonderful opportunity for students to improve on their English skills as well as connect and talk to people millions of miles away, which would otherwise be nearly impossible for students to accomplish before the turn of the century. The article, "Using Digitized Documents in the Classroom," relates to the video because teachers are pulling first hand resources from easily accessible websites that they can use in their classrooms. Teachers do not need to waste time going to the library or ordering those first hand resources. Students also learn how to use what technological resources are available to them to easily find resources for themselves. Rather than wasting class time teaching and supervising students' research progress with books and the library card system, the convenience of online website resources has cut down research time, leaving more time for analysis and critical thinking. These are two of the many skills that teachers want their students to learn in order to become successful future citizens and people in general. Technological advancement has helped provide a more convenient method in learning skills, especially being relevant in children's future because they will continue to use newer technologies and be surrounded by them. Thus, why, it is essential to integrate technology usage in the classroom.