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I've said it; technology is a beast. We're intrigued with it. We need the excitement of it's roar. We want so badly to tame it, and in some ways, we admit that it's...cute. Sure, it's wild; but like everything else in nature, it's necessary. As it carefully treks its path through our culture we follow observing, studying its behaviors, and adopting its "attitudes." Then, faster than we can document it, it evolves.
It's a beast that has changing faces, infinite paths, many followers, and is the most influential habit of a digital native. We have no choice but to follow, making the shift foward, without grinding the gears. As an educator, I have a responsibility to follow, observe, study, and adopt and I have to do so full speed ahead. Challenges have to become stepping stones. Exhaustion has to fuel new uses or solutions. Intrigue and excitement have to be long lived for this "thing" to work. I'm intriqued. I'm excited. And I'm shifting. How will you make the forward shift? What challenges do you foresee and how will you make them your stepping stones?
14 comments:
I really do agree with you that it is a beast. The beast is rapidly growing and I am still at the beginning. The hard part would be to get all the teachers on board at my school. I am ready to embrace the beast! And I found out how to add this comment!
What a lyrical way of describing technology. As important as technology is for the digital native I am concerned about the digital immigrant. I don't want the "beast" to frighten away our teachers. They do an amazing job they just need a little hand holding to jump into the fray.
The biggest challenge I can see is balance. Keeping the great aspects of technology and the not so great aspects in balance is difficult. I can sometimes feel students in a classroom retreating into technology instead of using it to expand their skills and reach out to others.
for me it is probably going to be one step forward and two steps back!!!! I do better with slow steps . i am sometimes overwhelmed with others who are sooo advanced, but I was able to complete the homework assignment and did think of a possible idea for my blog and did play around with the blog today after my cool down at the pool and I am looking forward to tomorrow
thanks for all your hard work. you are doing a great job
kay
I agree with you about the beast! I am ready to grab the beast and go. I only feel that I will never catch up with the technology being used. The problem I find in my school is to get all the teachers on board!
Hope you are having a great evening. See you tomorrow.
Joyce
Yes, I some days wonder where is the Beauty for this Beast technology---forgive me, this comes from my musical "hat." Step by step, I am learning,Stephanie, and constantly am amazed by the ease with which my digital native students apply and embrace it. They challenge me to keep up with technology in the classroom and in the theater, and keep taking deep breaths. I hope to use my blog in some way w/the kids-perhaps for journal topics. Thank you for your guidance and patience. --Christi
Thank you also for the Spanish langwitches article.
I created a website this past school year and now I am learning how to blog and wiki. My biggest concern is that even with all of these baby steps that I am taking, I will still never be able to keep up with all the fast paced technological advances. However, I very much appreciate your attempts to keep me afloat.
I tried posting a comment, but I don't know if it went through, so I am attempting again.
I agree technology is a beast especially for digital immigrants. Students demonstrate comfort with the digital world as digital natives. Fear is often a roadblock. Personally, I need to conquer the fear and tame the beast in order to use it effectively and comfortably with my students. I am fascinated by the opportunities that technology brings to our doorsteps and yet a little reluctant and slow to change. With time, courage, guidance, and classroom instruction, I am hopeful to overcome the fear and locate the beauty within the beast.
I am excited to introduce my sixth graders to my blog and wiki, and I also can't wait for them to create their own blogs. Since they're online all the time anyway, this should be a fun (and educational) experience for them!
I truly believe that technology is so important for 21st century learners and will enable everyone (teachers and students alike) to go father than we ever dreamed possible. How exciting! How lucky we are!
Ray Kurzweil's view of technology is of a future entwined so much more than philosophically with our lives; he sees technology as not just in our minds but in our brains, not next to us but within us. It's not a sci-fi future - consider the progression from punchcard computers to digital, then the difference between, for example, kelation and nanorobotic hemoglobin. Nor is it a distal event - he predicts, based on the logarithmic increase of technology, this "singularity" at 2049. Our students, right now, will be the creators of this future.
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