Did You Know?

First of all let me just say one thing, wow! This is amazing and scary to think about all of this. This video had so much information that I never knew was true or maybe I did but just didn't think about it. I knew that our technology was rapidly growing but had no idea to what extent. I mean to think that the amount of information in a week of the NY times exceeds the information one would learn in their lifetime during the 18th century is amazing! We have grown so much since that time and the knowledge seems to be endless! I guess the question that is on everyone's mind after watching this video is, "is this a good thing?"

In many ways the growth of technology can be a very good event. By having the latest and greatest technology we are opening ourselves and our youth to an endless amount of information and opportunities. The internet alone stores information that our youth could possibley never learn in a classroom. Then there are the opportunities, advancing technology opens a wide variety of different jobs. The more technology grows the more different jobs will be available. Like the video said "the amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years," this means by the time the children in our classroom are in the workforce the technology and information available will be more than we can even imagine. Our youth are going to have endless opportunities and their knowledge is going to be so complex.

Now, I know that this growing technology seems like a great thing but, I feel otherwise. With the rapid growth of technology and information, the things our students are learning in school now will not be useful by the time they get into the workforce. Also, with the growth of technological devices our children get distracted from books and studying. The video mentioned that India has more honor students than the US. I believe this is because our students rely too much on internet sources such as google and wikipedia. We, as teachers, need to find a way to keep our students entertained in the classroom without relying on technology. The US is getting away from the way we used to be. Everything we do is on the computer, ipods, iphones, and much more. We are even meeting our significant others, friends, and families on the internet, instead of in person. The video stated a scary statistic, "if myspace were a country it would be the 5th largest in the world." Now, if that isnt scary, I dont know what is.

There are many pros and cons to the rapid growth of technology, but I feel that we need to slow it down a little. We need to go back to the basics and not rely on our devices to get us through a day. Before we know it we will be teaching kindergardners how to use their latest iphone to do their homework. It might even be a requirement for elementary school kids to have a phone that has internet capabilities. I know I, as a teacher, will not want that to be the case. I want to be able to hold my students attention and teach them without needing to use technology. So, i know we all enjoy our ipods, laptops, and iphones but we need to ask ourselves if we are going too far.