…technology with a twist

…because it can be joint-achingly mind-numbing…sit still in your chair, open your textbook, read a passage, answer the questions, only talk about what is on the pages in front of you…

These holidays I have witnessed my TQ wading further into the world of the adolescent. What amused me most was one rainy afternoon when she pandered to my request and played a game of Scrabble with me…well I was playing Scrabble and listening to some music…the TQ was

• playing Scrabble,
• googling a question about a scientific process she was watching on “Bones” on the DVD on her laptop on the table next to the game when it wasn’t her turn in our game, and
• sending SMS messages to another TQ who was on break at her workplace,
• and listening to my music.

How do I compete with that kind of behaviour when I put 26 of them in a classroom??

Over at www.alf.org Susan Einhorn is thinking about this too; she says –

Kids today interact with their world differently. Those devices are part of how they think, choose, play, work, connect, and generally know how and what they are in this world. Intellectually this is easy to accept, but realizing this at a more visceral level is different. During some casual conversation or trivial everyday task, something happens and the realization of how differently kids today think can hit you like a ton of bricks. And it’s not just the mere presence of a device, it’s the radical change in thinking that this ubiquity of devices and the immersion in all areas of technology have brought about. This different worldview colors (some would say taints) so many other parts of their lives and their thinking and impacts the world in so many ways.

So my question presently is this – Do I need to consider this further and find a way to apply this new understanding to how I go about teaching my classes? and to what degree? OR are these kids sufficiently versatile to adapt themselves to the environment of the current classroom and apply themselves in the age old fashion?