Different generations have different points of view; I remember whenever I use to have an argument with my parents, I use to put a statement “you just don’t UnderSTAND.” And now I think it’s a generation gap. I believe with time changes take place and we should move and upgrade ourselves with time. Sane is with technology, Technology influences everyday life and has a strong influence on society and culture. So, technology is incorporated in all aspects of culture including travel, food, government, and art. It shapes different cultures and differentiates one from another. It allows us to intermix.
” If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”- John Dewey
Considering today’s Education system I, agree that everything has to be good and bad. But remember this– the bad usually stems from abuse and extremes. Eating pizza is good; eating a whole pizza is bad. Sleeping is good; sleeping all day? Typically bad. Kids have big imaginations; too big to be contained. Where in the past they only had art supplies like crayons and colored markers at their disposal to get those ideas out and into a conveyable form, they now have computers, tablets, and so much more to help them turn such thoughts into reality, whether that’s through traditional drawing medium or through digital art. They can create a 3D animation… who knows.. their creation could be the prototype to a million-dollar business.
It’s time to change! With this time of the pandemic, our education system has already started developing and took a step ahead towards technology, from black-board teaching it is changed to interactive classrooms and online classes are nowadays thing and it is not only helping children but also adding great knowledge to Educators life. Being an Educator and a parent I think that we have to AIM FOR BALANCE, its clear that technology is here to stay and the world is becoming only more digitally driven. In many ways, that’s a good thing. Technology can be empowering for kids of all ages, with tools that help children learn in fun and engaging ways, express their creativity and stay connected to others. Children who are tech-savvy will also be better prepared for a workforce that will be predominantly digital. As with most situations, a balanced approach to the challenges works best. The concept of traditional education has changed radically, being tangibly present in the classroom isn’t the only learning option anymore, not with the rise of the internet and new technologies at least. Nowadays we have access to quality education whenever and wherever we want.
So, friends, I think I am ready to accept the degradation as technology exposes us to things we can’t see every day, we have being to understand that life is more than just the four walls of the home or classroom. Share your thoughts on this!
Thanks!
Gunpreesh Kaur
I have connected with your post in so many ways Gunpreesh. I feel almost frustration with my parents when they try to use tech and after countless times of showing my mom especially how to post properly, how to log on to zoom meetings and then reminding her to mute her mic, tagging people, taking selfies that are not causing double chins etc. However I have to check myself often and remind myself of that generational gap, that was seems fluent and easy to me is not the case for others and vise versa with me learning how to use Twitter, and eventually with my major project diving into Tik Tok and Edsby. My other connection was your quote, my husband always tells me we can’t raise todays children in how we were raised, things have evolved and changed and we need to keep moving forward with today and tomorrow.
i completely agree with you, each & everything has some good and bad impacts, just like technology. over use of this will definitely ruin the life of students.
Piggy backing off of what Christine said, something I forget that computer skills or technology skills are no longer explicitly taught in the middle years, and students are expected to know how to use the technology that we are working with. When I was a student in middle school, I had a computer teacher that spent hours a week teaching us how to use the technology we had, and taught us how to use the applications properly and efficiently. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, search engines, etc. were all skills that were taught. Now, many of us teachers assume that because kiddos are using technology daily, they know how to use all of these things properly. We forget that technology skills, literacy and digitial citizenship are all concepts that we still need to explicitly teach, and therefore, there should be a stronger emphasis placed on that in our curriculums… which currently, there is not.
This concept of balance is very powerful, Gunpreesh! This idea plays an important role in my approach to using tech in the classroom with my young learners. I don’t let my students have much (if any) screen time at school, perhaps as a way to balance out the amount of screen time that I perceive some of them get at home. As I continue on in this course, I hope to explore this tension of screen time in the early years more. Perhaps it is a matter of shifting my perspective from screen time as always being bad to optimizing screen time for learning.
The generation gap is both frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Sometimes we are grateful for the roots with which our parents/grandparents connect us and sometimes we are frustrated by teaching them our digital world.
BALANCE… I think in this technological era, balance is such an important word, it is very important to maintain a balance between the tech and non-tech world. Moreover, I agree Gunpreesh, technology is empowering for both kids and adults. So, we have to keep learning and growing in order to keep ourselves and our kids/students updated.
I really enjoy the quote: ” If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”- John Dewey. Change is great, especially in education when what we teach children sets them up for their future. Technology will always be around and will always be evolving. It’s important that schools and the way we teach change as well.
However, kids are still kids! They have energy and imagination, so like you said “balance is key!” It’s hard to find that balance sometimes, even I struggle with knowing when I have had enough tech for the day.
I also feel that excess of everything is bad. There should be a limitation on everything and even on the usage of internet. For young minds, it is difficult to decide between good and bad due to which some students become victims of social media or internet. What can be the ways by which we can tell students about the limitations of internet if I talk about Indian culture as in India the conversion is not open between parents and children and there is always a generation gap.