…Cultures.  Sigh.  I really wanted to come up with something that sounded remarkably like “Titans”, and thought of: “Tightened”, “Frightened”, and “Tight-Fisted.”  While I had a rationale, they just didn’t totally encompass what I wanted to share.  You see, I think that when it comes to digital awareness and use, what we are constantly dealing with in education is a clash of generational understanding and experiential cultures.

As a mother of four fantastic children, I am constantly being personally educated about all of the opportunities and applications that technology provides — and updates on a daily basis!  I am occasionally overwhelmed with all that’s available to us through the internet and our technology tools.  I find that while I’m open to the wonders and values of these tools, I am also frustrated at the life style that seems to come with it.  One of my sons is a senior in high school and has become a tech support person for the county’s technology team.  He is obviously savvy about technology.  I’m so proud of that!  However, he spends any free time he can grab, on his computer, competing in various “games.”  I am worried about that.  He is working to help me understand that it isn’t “fooling around” or laziness, but actually a viable and growing field in which he can make a very good living.  Our “clash” on perspectives here seems symbolic to me of the generational divide we are experiencing in all things technological.

As educators, we are certainly a mixed lot of perspectives, but we are overwhelmingly ranked in the majority of the under-informed when it comes to technology.  Some of us feel that the traditional method is what works best and what we experienced as good teaching and learning experiences should be what we promote in our classrooms.  Some of us note that the use of technology has changedwritten communication in a way that seems less proper and that social manners have changed to the detriment of our ability to carry on face-to-face conversation.  We see more lounging time and less outdoor engagement and worry about a generation of vidiots (video-addicted and educationally lacking individuals) ruling the world.  We have seen the misuses of the tools — inordinate barrages of inopportune photos, cheating, off-task behaviors — and move to block them instead of redirect them.  The voices of those who are working to highlight the empowerments of innovative technology application in the classroom are currently the minority, but I believe they are growing stronger.

And that’s a good thing.  Although we currently have more educators in their classrooms fighting against their students’  “inappropriate distractions”, it is of more advantage to examine what is interesting to our students (i.e. relevant) and use our experience to help them learn how to be appropriate with tools like social media.  That will be life-changing for us now and in our future when these individuals are making decisions that impact our country.

So we don’t need to keep a tight grip on our respective perspectives or be frightened by the increasing “dumbing down of America”,  we need to do our job — help our students grow as learners and life-practitioners using the tools that are and will be available to them.

b/w photo taken from www.eveningnews24.co.uk on 9/30/13

knotted rope taken from www.tips.slaw.ca on 9/30/13