Read & Reflect #1

In six weeks I will be celebrating my first 29th birthday, and depending on the day I feel ever so old. I recently went on a trip with two “little old ladies”, one is the mother of my childhood friend and the other her sister. I do not consider myself to be tech savvy in any way, but last September I joined the smartphone revolution and succumbed to having an outlandish phone bill in estrange for staying connected. This summer I spent 2 weeks with these ladies who learn to type on a manual type writer, bought cell phones only because their children asked them to before going on a cross country trip, have no idea what a GPS is or how to use it, get confused after night because of night blindness.

If I need to figure out where the closest Wal-Mart is I pick up my phone and Google it. I know how to follow a GPS because I had to learn to use it while driving a cab for two years. There are things that I now find simple and second nature, like using my phone and every 5 seconds anytime I want to clarify some fact that I never would have foreseen even three years ago. Anytime I want to make sure I'm telling someone I'm free on the right day I look at my phone. Things that I have always needed to use my memory for, I have replaced with my phone. I don’t know if it is a positive step forward, my memory is worse than ever, but I wouldn't go back. I've come to think of myself is much more technology advanced. In the first few years of college if I needed something done on my computer I had to ask a friend favor. With the absence of said friend over the last two years I have learned to do it for myself. It was often painfully hard and took forever, but I did it because it was a necessity.

This new generation, who from infancy has been surrounded by technology that is continuing to change, evolve, advance, there is no struggle to stay caught up. They are continually learning, but without the struggle to adapt or rewire ones brain. David hockey was an important contributor to the Pop art movement of the 1960s. He started off making entire pieces with Polaroid images. He has evolved with the technology over the years and his art making has changed with it, who is to say which is better. Who says that taking picture with a Polaroid and using thousands of them to document a life or experience is any better or less valuable than using an iPad and spending hours upon hours making these intricate and amazing painting. He created an entire gallery of iPad paintings which he featured in the Biennale, a world renown and prestigious thing.

I have always had issues being able to type as fast as the thoughts come to my mind. I have struggled with blogging or responding to comments on Blackboard and finding a way to type fast enough to get the thought down before it’s gone. I read terribly slow and dyslexic; many times I lose the thought before I can get it typed. Through the use of my smart phone I can talk and it types; I can get all the thoughts down before they're gone, even creating this post I'm using my phone.

One thing that impressed me from the video was how Korea overcame their economic crisis with technology. Creating free internet everywhere provided people access to the technology to better their family. With this quote blessing they also created a new list of problems that they are making strides to cure, like the psychologist who spent years studying the effects of internet. Does the advancement of technology make us better at multitasking or does being able to go through 12 different things all at once mean you have no attention span. I know even doing my homework I was distracted over and over and over by my phone, email, etc. I am distracted by the technology around me, but is it because I'm easily distracted or because technology is making me more distracted.

After watching this documentary and reading these articles I have never felt a larger generational gap to the kids are growing up a technology saturated life. Is there a balance, I think so, but it comes from the parents providing boundaries. As educators we're not in the home; we are not the ones to set boundaries in their daily lives. We need to give students access to opportunities to better themselves. As teachers we have to improve and grow and learn every bit as much as the world of technology is changing.